Witnesses: Comrades killed rebel leader

Associated Press

BENGHAZI, Libya

The Libyan rebels’ military commander was killed by his comrades while in custody after he was arrested by the opposition’s leadership on suspicion of treason, witnesses said Friday, in a sign of disarray that posed a major setback for the movement battling Moammar Gadhafi.

The slaying of Abdel- Fattah Younis raised fear and uncertainty in Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. Thousands marched behind his coffin, wrapped in the rebels’ tricolor flag, to the graveyard for his burial, chanting that he was a martyr “beloved by God.”

Troops fired a military salute as the coffin arrived, and angry and grieving supporters fired wildly into the air with automatic weapons.

At the graveside, Younis’ son, Ashraf, broke down, crying and screaming as they lowered the body into the ground and — in a start-ling and risky display in a city that was the first to shed Gadhafi’s rule nearly six months ago — pleaded hysterically for the return of the Libyan leader to bring stability.

“We want Moammar to come back! We want the green flag back!” he shouted at the crowd, referring to Gadhafi’s national banner.

Younis’ slaying appeared to shake both the rebels’ leadership body, the National Transitional Council, and its Western allies, who have heavily backed the rebels controlling most of eastern Libya.