Libya rebels appoint new leader as they push further West

Yunis had been summoned from the front with the knowledge of the NTC's executive committee Libya''s Transitional National Council has appointed Suleiman Mahmoud al-Obeidi as the leader of the opposition forces succeed its senior military commander Major General Abdul-Fattah Younis who was killed on Thursday. The Council announced yesterday to disband all militias operating in the Libyan territories which are under its control, two days after the assassination of Major General Abdul-Fattah Younis.
Libyan rebel commander Gen Abdel Fattah Younes was shot dead by a militia linked to his own side, a rebel minister has said.
Ali Tarhouni said Gen Younes was killed by members of the Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade, which is an Islamist group. Britan has also admitted knowledge of the possible links to an Islamist group; British Defence Secretary Liam Fox on Sunday warned that Islamist militants may have been behind last week's assassination of rebel Libyan military chief General Abdel Fatah Yunis.
Fox told BBC Radio that the death, attributed by the British press to Al-Qaeda elements within the rebel movement, remained a mystery but that militant influence within Libya was inevitable.
"It's not yet clear who actually carried out the killing," he said.
"Of course there are going to be militants in Libya -- there are militants right across the whole of the Middle East -- it would be a great surprise if there weren't some in Libya itself," added the defence minister.
A deadly clash broke out in Libya's rebel stronghold of Benghazi in the wake of Yunis's murder, as the Kadhafi regime said Sunday it was in contact with rebel leadership members.
Four rebels were killed in the clash with a pro-Kadhafi group in Benghazi overnight, a rebel spokesman said.
Gen Younes defected to the rebels in February after serving in the Libyan leadership since the 1969 coup which brought Col Muammar Gaddafi to power. According to Ali Tarhouni, a minister with the National Transitional Council, members of the Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade, an Islamist group allied with the rebels, killed the general and two other commanders and burned their bodies.
The Libyan government in Tripoli has constantly warned that the rebels are under the influence of al-Qaeda. Although there is no evidence of this, it has called the murder of Gen Younes a "slap in the face" for Britain after it officially recognised the council in Benghazi as the government of Libya.
Nato said the strike would "reduce the regime's ability to oppress civilians" but also "preserve television broadcast infrastructure that will be needed after the conflict".
Oil minister Tarhouni told reporters in Benghazi a leader of the militia had provided information on the circumstances of Younes' death.
Mr Tarhouni said Younes and two of his aides were killed after being recalled to the rebel stronghold for questioning.
Younes' shot and burned body, and the bodies of his aides, were found on the edge of Benghazi on Friday.
Rebels are making further gains as they took the village of Josh at the foot of the Nafusa mountain range on Sunday.
"We took Josh this morning and are now heading west. Now we're fighting to take Tiji" further down the valley, Juma Brahim, head of the rebel fighters' operational command in the Nafusa region, told AFP.
Military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said the judges who summoned Yunis for questioning did not have the authority do so and that the defence minister had written a letter recalling the arrest warrant.
He refused to identify suspects arrested in connection with the killing, saying they are innocent until proven guilty.
"When the full truth is known it will be put to the people and the whole world," he said, adding that meanwhile he "will cut the road to those trying to start up rumours among the revolutionaries."
Mahmud Shammam, who handles media relations for the rebels, slammed foreign and local journalists over coverage of the killing, saying "irresponsible news" was being published.
Meanwhile diplomats said that the UN Security Council is ready to release Libyan assets frozen under UN sanctions to buy humanitarian aid.
Aid groups across Libya have reported shortages of basic items such as vaccines and painkillers. They say stockpiles in the Gaddafi-controlled west and the rebel-held east have been rapidly depleted by five months of war.