Here's a link to a more complete report via Al Jazeera of the assassination of General Younes: Click here for report

"Abdel Fattah Younes and his aides were killed by gunmen on Thursday, creating a power vacuum at the top of the opposition military hierarchy and raising questions about who was responsible.

Ali Tarhouni, a rebel minister, said that a militia leader, who had asked to fetch Younes from the frontline near the oil town of Brega, had been arrested and had confessed that his subordinates had carried out the killing."

Gadhafi spokesmen claim that Al Qaida was behind the assassination. The CIA has no comment but their favorite general is ready to take over as commander and chief.

"An angry Mohammed Agoury, a member of the rebel special forces, told the AP news agency that he was present when a group of rebels from a faction known as the February 17 Martyrs' Brigade came to Younes' operations room outside Benghazi before dawn on Wednesday and took him away for interrogation.

Agoury said he tried to accompany his commander, but Younes "trusted them and went alone".

"Instead, they betrayed us and killed him," he said.

The February 17 Martyrs Brigade is a group made up of hundreds of civilians who took up arms to join the rebellion.

Their fighters participate in the front-line battles with Gaddafi's forces, but also act as a semi-official internal security force for the opposition."

This is just the kind of "shot in the foot" that will greatly undercut the momentum that the Rebels have been slowly achieving in the last few weeks.

Charley Noble