THE Libyan counter-revolutionaries, Hague’s would-be government of Libya, have begun to kill each other off.
Gen Abdel Fattah Younes who was an ally of Col Gaddafi for many years till last February, and then defected to become the military commander of the Libyan rebels, has been murdered by a rebel faction in an ambush.
He was shot dead along with two aides when he was on hs way to a committee meeting to answer questions on the rebels inability to organse a successful offensive action.
The NTC head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil (another Gadaffi defector) said that Gen Abdel Fattah Younes was killed by assailants, and the head of the group responsible had been arrested.
He said Gen Younes was summoned for questioning about military operations, but never made it to the meeting.
‘With all sadness, I inform you of the passing of Abdel Fattah Younes, the commander-in-chief of our rebel forces,’ Mr Jalil announced late on Thursday. ‘The person who carried out the assassination was captured.’
Jalil did not elaborate on the identity or motivations of the assailants. It is not clear where the attack took place.
Two aides to Gen Younes, Col Muhammad Khamis and Nasir al-Madhkur, were also killed in the attack, Mr Jalil said, adding that there would be three days of mourning in their honour.
Shortly after the announcement of Gen Younes’ death, gunmen entered the grounds of the hotel in the eastern city of Benghazi where Jalil was speaking, reportedly firing into the air before being convinced to leave.
The Al Jazeera website had reported on Thursday that ‘General Abd-al Fattah Younes, the chief of staff of the rebel forces in Libya, has been arrested by the National Transition Council (NTC).
‘He is being held at an undisclosed military garrison in Benghazi. The reason behind the former minister of interior’s arrest on Thursday has not been made public.’
It added that ‘William Hague, the UK foreign minister, announced the recognition of the National Transitional Council (NTC) on Wednesday, 12 days after the US made a similar move . . .
‘Mahmud al-Naku, a Libyan exile in Britain, has been tapped as the NTC’s ambassador, an opposition official announced on Wednesday.
‘Britain will transfer about $147m in frozen assets to the NTC and has already said it will extend a $143m loan based on frozen Libyan funds.’
• Meanwhile, in another defiant anti-imperialist speech, the Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi has urged his supporters to march on western Al-Jabal al-Gharbi region in order to ‘liberate’ it from the rebels.
He urged: ‘Confront the enemies! Confront the despicable Crusader aggressors. Confront them with the million-strong marches.
‘Let their aircraft of aggression take pictures of the million-strong marches.
‘Let them be spectators of the Libyan people that they wanted to insult, ignoring the determination of the Libyan people when they forcibly appointed a group of degraded, lowly and dirty traitors, saying that they represented the Libyan people.
‘Shame on the Libyan people if the Libyan people are represented by the traitors appointed by French President Sarkozy, by Sarkozy’s intelligence services!
‘Is this the Libyan people? Never! This is the Libyan people in Abu-Sulaym! Nobody represents them.
There is no representation for the Libyan people. When the Libyan people speak, they do it for themselves and no one can represent them.
‘Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell, o you the traitors, the depraved and the degraded! To hell with their masters and the intelligence services who have appointed them, trained them and bought them.
‘What a farce created by the world, the Western world, the savage world which is devoid of humanity? This Western world which has no religion and no manners! This is a barbaric generation which is insulting all peoples, colonising all peoples and killing all peoples! They have killed thousands, millions of people.
‘But now, they have come against a solid rock of revolution. They have hit a mountain of granite. They have come against the Libyan people’s determination. . .
‘NATO is not confronting a conventional army, it is not confronting a political party, it is not confronting a government, it is not confronting one tribe, it is not confronting a faction or a family. It is confronting a people with its great tribes. It is confronting an armed people.
‘Look o you the agents how are you being trampled by the masses! O you traitors look how the masses are trampling on you! Now every traitor is scared and is looking for an escape.
‘They are fleeing like rats to Tunisia and Egypt in fear of you.
‘Forward to liberate the western Al-Jabal from the soldiers of France, from the mercenaries, from the mercenaries of France…
‘France has always had a foreign legion composed of mercenaries from other nations.
‘Now a group of the French foreign legion is in Al-Jabal al-Arabi. The whole world knows that there is a foreign legion which is composed of mercenaries who have no homeland. They live like dogs with the French army. France sends them to fight for it.
‘We must carry out our historic duty. This is an historic duty. This is the battle of destiny which is being imposed on us. We must assume our duty. As we have said, we are not going to betray our ancestors or grandsons.
‘Forward! Forward! Forward! Forward.’
