On July 24 the Jordan based Al - Bawaba media reported that General Abdul Fatah Younis "head of the rebel forces army in Libya, was killed in the fighting in Brega area some 10 days ago in what was described as mysterious circumstances." "It is worth mentioning that there were differences between some rebel leaders and Younes as some rebels claimed he was responsible for killing and injuring hundreds of people in front of Italy's consulate in Benghazi in 2006. This incident was related to a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed." Next day he gave a radio interview to announce he was alive and well and declare that the rebels would achieve victory before the impending start of Ramadan. TNC officials claimed afterwards that someone was impersonating Gen Younes, who was indeed under arrest. He accused Gaddafi regime of distributing this false information in order to influence the morale of the rebels.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil
On July 28 General Abdul Fatah Younis reported that was killed along with his comrades Colonel Mohammed Khamis and Major Nasser Mathkour. National Transitional Council (TNC), the opposition's administration based in Benghazi chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil said in the subsequent press conference that Libyan state TV had announced to its listeners that they would “hear good news about Abdul Fatah Younis this week.” As for the assassination he remarked: "Today, we learned that Major General Abdel Fattah Younes Faraj and his two companions were shot by gunmen after he was summoned to appear before a judicial committee to investigate military affairs. But the deceased did not appear before this committee, because of the procedures that happened to him, which are under investigation. The head of the armed group, one of them that actually carried out the assassination, was arrested." He gave a last warning "to the individuals who are armed inside the cities, we will not allow armed militias within the city limits. They have one of two choices: They have to join the front, or they have to join the national security forces inside the cities" and exteneded condolences "to all the Libyans and all the tribes, especially the tribe of Obeidat that have paid heavily with more than 40 martyrs and in excess of 500 injured at the front" adding that "these events will not turn the Obeidat tribe away from the revolution. Relatives of the dead, relatives of the martyrs and some of these tribes are here, and we all ask the Allah the almighty to give his mercy upon all of them.."
The TNC claimed that Major-General Abdel Fatah Younes had been shot by pro-Gaddafi forces. But this was immediately dismissed by supporters of the commander, who claimed he had been killed by fellow revolutionary fighters. Roadblocks were being set up in Benghazi after units loyal to Gen Younes were reported to have left the front line at the port of Brega and entered the opposition capital. The roads to the commander's home were sealed off by the Shabaab, volunteer militia fighters formed after the uprising. Later in the evening, gunmen burst into a hall where the head of the TNC, Mustafa Abdul Jalil had announced Gen Younes's death, and sprayed the room with rifle fire. A witness said that they later managed to enter the hotel with their weapons but security forces calmed them down and convinced them to leave. “They shouted ‘You killed him,’” in reference to the NTC, he added.
Ali Tarhouni
After 24 hours of confusion, rebel minister Ali Tarhouni said Younes had been killed by fighters who were sent to fetch him from the front and his bullet-riddled and partially burned body was found at a ranch near the rebel capital of Benghazi. Tarhouni said late on Friday a militiaman had been arrested and confessed that his subordinates had carried out the killing. He announced that the assassination of Gen Younes had been conducted by "renegade" members of the Abu Obeida al-Jarrah brigade which had taken Gen Younes into custody on suspicion of treason. Younes had been recalled over suspicions he or his family were secretly in contact with the Libyan leader.
Gaddafi's government pointed the finger at Fawzi Bu Kitf, head of the Union of Revolutionary Forces, a federation of armed rebel groups operating in the east of the country. In an apparent effort to distance himself from the killing, Bu Kitf on Saturday named the key suspect as Mustafa al-Rubh, the field commander who had been dispatched to arrest Younes.
On 30/7 Al - Jazeera reported that Younis was shot dead "after he had been held and questioned by their investigators regarding "a military matter", the head of the council says." Jalil claimed that since the throats of the men had not been cut the killing was not the work of Islamists but of pro - Qaddafi agents seeking to create divisions within the opposition. There was a warrant signed by Ali Essawi, his deputy, and that after Abdel Fattah Younes, the commander of the rebel armed forces, had been questioned on Thursday he had been released.
Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters. that behind this act it was al-Qaeda that wanted to mark out its presence and its influence in this region. Mohammed Agoury, a member of the rebel special forces, told the AP news agency that he was present when a group of rebels from the February 17th Brigade came to Younes' operations room before dawn on Wednesday and took him away for interrogation.
Abdul Fatah Younis was a senior military officer in Libya. He held the rank of Major General and the post of Minister of Interior, considered as a key supporter of Muammar al-Gaddafi or even No. 2 in the Libyan government. He had arrived in Benghazi commanding a special forces unit whose mission was to help relieve the beseiged Katiba compound, which had sheltered the remaining loyalist forces in the city since 18 February, and which was undergoing almost continuous attack. He claimed to have ordered his soldiers not to shoot at protesters, and negotiated an arrangement whereby the loyalists were permitted to retreat from the building and the city. Reading his short speech from a paper he resigned on camera on 22 February 2011 to defect to the rebel side.
On 30/7 Al - Jazeera reported that Younis was shot dead "after he had been held and questioned by their investigators regarding "a military matter", the head of the council says." Jalil claimed that since the throats of the men had not been cut the killing was not the work of Islamists but of pro - Qaddafi agents seeking to create divisions within the opposition. There was a warrant signed by Ali Essawi, his deputy, and that after Abdel Fattah Younes, the commander of the rebel armed forces, had been questioned on Thursday he had been released.
Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters. that behind this act it was al-Qaeda that wanted to mark out its presence and its influence in this region. Mohammed Agoury, a member of the rebel special forces, told the AP news agency that he was present when a group of rebels from the February 17th Brigade came to Younes' operations room before dawn on Wednesday and took him away for interrogation.
Abdul Fatah Younis was a senior military officer in Libya. He held the rank of Major General and the post of Minister of Interior, considered as a key supporter of Muammar al-Gaddafi or even No. 2 in the Libyan government. He had arrived in Benghazi commanding a special forces unit whose mission was to help relieve the beseiged Katiba compound, which had sheltered the remaining loyalist forces in the city since 18 February, and which was undergoing almost continuous attack. He claimed to have ordered his soldiers not to shoot at protesters, and negotiated an arrangement whereby the loyalists were permitted to retreat from the building and the city. Reading his short speech from a paper he resigned on camera on 22 February 2011 to defect to the rebel side.
Col Khalifa Haftar
The committed assassination possibly will leave Khalifa Haftar at the helm of the rebel's army. Haftar is probably the CIA's man in Libya. He came to Benghazi on March 14, straight from Fairfax, Virginia, where had lived for 20 years. Upon his arrival with his two sons he self - proclaimed as commander of the Free Libyan Army. Claiming that he doesn't report to Omar Hariri, the rebels' defense minister or to Gen. Abdel Fattah Younes, who had the title of chief of staff, he told that one of his sons was in regular contact with James Clapper, U.S. director of National Intelliglence, a claim that a spokesperson for Clapper said was inaccurate. In March, Younes was rumoured to have nearly come to blows with Col Khalifa Belqasim Haftar, a rival within the rebel camp, and for a time both men claimed to be in command of the rebel forces as they raced towards Tripoli, only to be thrown back towards Benghazi. Hifter swiftly replaced Younis as the commander of rebel forces as his son claimed that he was responsible for commanding rebel troops in the field, while Younes served as chief of staff back at headquarters. Omar Hariri, defence minister at the time, represented the military before the NTC, he said in late April. Furthermore he claimed that his father along with Jalil and Ali Essawi that later signed the warrant against Younes worked together as a team, a kind of military council. According to Hifter Jalil and Essawi was a figurehead and commander in chief only in name. But in the contrary it seems that the NTC degraded his role and promoted Younes. As Abdulhafiz Ghoga, the NTC's vice chairman and spokesman, told Al Jazeera in an interview later Younes was at the top of the army’s chain of command. Hariri represented the military before the NTC, it was true, but Hifter was only a commander, one of many leaders of the newly formed rebel brigades.
In recent months, the dispute seemed to resolve. The NTC presented a more disciplined public face to the media, eliminated contradictory remarks about who was in charge and minimised Hifter's role in favor of Younes. It replaced Defence Minister Omar Hariri with Jalal al-Dogheily, a senior opposition figure who was older than both Younes and Hifter and whose job was to both coordinate military affairs and mediate between the two men.
It seems that the pro - American rebel's officials blame the Islamists, the more localized conservatives blame Qaddafi while himself blames Al - Qaeda. Anyway the whole story underlines the fragmentaion of the revolutionaries among different foreign policy trends, local mentality, contest for power among the tribes and fundamentalism and retaliation. Abdul Fatah Youni's death was for the moment per se less important than the ongoing political manipulation of the assassination. Finally, it must be noted that the the Obeidat tribe loyal to Yunis blaming the NTC for his death, that Jalil had wished that "these events will not turn from the revolution" expressing his "condolences ... especially (to) the tribe of Obeidat that have paid heavily with more than 40 martyrs and in excess of 500 injured at the front", is divided to 15 sub - tribes standing at the center of the Harabi Confederation, the practically hegemonic tribe among the tribes of Cyrenaica, which overlaps between the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and al Qaeda.
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