Libyan rebels step up purge against Gaddafi loyalists

The Telegraph ^ | 8/1/2011 | Adrian Blomfield

[bruinbirdman]

Libya's rebels stepped up a purge against suspected regime loyalists in Benghazi on Monday as they sought to dampen fears that a damaging rift within their ranks could undermine the war against Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Opposition officials said that at least 63 members of a militia suspected of acting as a "fifth column" for the Libyan leader had been rounded up.

The Katiba Yussef Shakir group was accused of staging a raid on a prison in Benghazi, the opposition's de-facto capital in eastern Libya, on Sunday. More than 300 inmates with alleged ties to the regime were able to escape during a five-hour battle during which four rebels and five members of the militia were killed.

The raid came as chaos threatened to engulf the city in the wake of the killing of the rebels' chief battlefield commander, Gen Abdel Fattah Younes, last week.

The assassination triggered a wave of unrest, with tribal supporters of the general launching attacks on a number of buildings in Benghazi.

An opposition minister admitted that Gen Younes was killed by rogue elements of an Islamist militia allied to the rebels, although other officials have since tried to transfer the blame to the Katiba Yussef Shakir group.

The general's death has led to considerable recrimination in the rebels' ranks and prompted fears that the opposition's always fragile unity could . . .

[TigersEye]

They should ask Gaddafi for a cease fire while they work out this civil war within a civil war.