Libyan rebels say military chief was assassinated by own troops
7/30/2011ZINTAN, Libya — Libya’s rebel government announced Friday that its top military chief, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younis, was assassinated by its own rebel fighters.
A brigade leader tasked with transporting General Younis from the front line near the oil town of Brega to the rebel capital of Benghazi confessed that his lieutenants killed General Younis and two aides Thursday, the rebels’ oil and finance minister, Ali Tarhouni, said Friday night.
General Younis was to appear before a military committee investigating allegations that he had maintained ties with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi after defecting from the government to the rebel side in February.
Mr. Tarhouni said the assassins were members of the Abu Obaida Aljarah brigade, one of dozens of autonomous units that answer, more or less, to the central authority of the rebel council. The rebel government offered no motive for the killing.
Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against Libya says it will consider requests from Gadhafi’s government and the rebels to unfreeze funds to pay for medicine and other urgent humanitarian needs for the Libyan people.