The top rebel military commander was killed Thursday Tiffany Bracelet, and members of his tribe greeted the announcement with gunfire and angry threats. The violent outburst stirred fears that a tribal feud could divide the forces struggling to topple the Libyan dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
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The leader of the rebels’ provisional government, Mustapha Abdul Jalil, announced Thursday evening that assassins had killed the commander, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, and two other officers. But he provided few details.
General Younes, a former officer and cabinet member in the Qaddafi government, had long been a contentious figure among the rebels, some of whom doubted his loyalty. He had been summoned to Benghazi for questioning by a panel of judges, and members of his tribe — the Obeidi, one of the largest tribes in the east — evidently blamed the rebel leadership for having some role in the general’s death.
The specter of a violent tribal conflict within the rebel ranks touches on a central fear of the Western nations backing the Libyan insurrection: that the rebels’ democratic goals could give way to a tribal civil war over Libya’s oil resources. Colonel Qaddafi has often warned of such a possibility as he has fought to keep power, while the rebel leaders have argued that their cause transcends Libya’s age-old tribal divisions.
Before General Younes defected to the rebel side soon after the uprising began in February, he had been a longtime friend of Colonel Qaddafi and his interior minister. Those ties fostered persistent rumors that his loyalties were divided. State television sometimes tried to exploit those rumors by reporting that he had returned to his old job.
During an interview in April, Colonel Qaddafi’s daughter, Aisha, suggested that General Younes was still loyal to her father, saying that at least one former member of the Qaddafi government on the rebels’ ruling council was talking with the Tiffany UK Sale Qaddafis and pointedly declining to rule out General Younes.
Tensions started rising here in the rebels’ de facto capital early Thursday evening with reports that a group of four judges working for the rebel council had summoned General Younes for questioning. The war effort he led has stalled out for months along immobile battle lines on the eastern front.
When the rebel leadership announced a news conference later at a Benghazi hotel, a few dozen members of his tribe gathered outside and began chanting. Some inside, at the news conference, warned of possible violence if General Younes were removed from his position.
Instead, two hours after the press conference had been scheduled to begin, Mr. Abdul Jalil made a short speech, saying that General Younes had been killed and offering few clues to the circumstances of the death.
Mr. Abdul Jalil confirmed that General Younes had been summoned for questioning by the judges, though he declined to say why. He said only that General Younes had been “released on his own recognizance,” rather than either accused or exonerated of anything.
For months, a public rivalry between General Younes and another rebel military leader, Khalifa Hifter, contributed to the pervasive sense of chaos in the ranks, as both men claimed to command the fighters in the field.
Mr. Abdul Jalil said that an armed gang had killed General Younes and the other two officers, and that at least one of the gang members had been Tiffany Bangles captured. He declined to name the killer, or to say whether the gang had been working for Colonel Qaddafi, rebels who did not trust General Younes, or some other tribal group or faction.
Mr. Abdul Jalil said rebel security forces were still searching for the bodies of the three dead officers, raising questions about how he had confirmed their death.
The rebel leader also conveyed an intense anxiety not to alienate General Younes’s tribe. Instead of appearing with other members of the rebel council as expected, he sat at a table with men he said were elders of the Obeidi tribe. He repeatedly said he wanted to “pay respects” to the tribe for its sacrifice and understanding, calling it “strong and deep.” He left the news conference without taking questions.
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