foreignpolicyupdate:

Members of the Obeidi tribesmen mourn at the news and funeral for the assassinated tribal leader Gen Abdul Fattah Younes. 

Members of the rebel fighting force killed the top rebel military commander in Libya, Gen Abdul Fattah Younes, in Benghazi this last Thursday. Gen Abdul Fattah Younes was a former commander in the Kaddafi regime, and although he had defected to the rebel side, many questioned his true loyalty. In fact, his assassination took place as the General traveled to a meeting with the National Transitional Council, who had summoned him to inquire about any lingering connections he may have had with the Kaddafi government.

Yet the National Transitional Council is going to great lengths to veil any words of condemnation and have taken to calling the general a martyr, despite his alleged treasonous acts. That’s because Gen Abdul Fattah Younes was a leading member in the Obeidi tribe, one of the largest and most well armed Tribal groups in the East, whose loyalties he commanded.

His assassination was followed by a day of chaotic violence in the rebel capital, Benghazi, where members of the Obeidi tribe fired guns into the air, and in one case, stormed a hotel. The violence sheds a spotlight on the fissures within the rebel alliance, and the outbreak of tribal animosities seems to undermine the sense of national unity the ruling council has tried to exude, especially to its international patrons.

What’s more, the specter of tribal warfare is discouraging the Western nations who have supported the NATO operation in Libya, and have formally recognized the NTC. The possibility that civil war could erupt following the deposition of Kaddafi has always lingered in the minds of Western Leaders. Indeed, the United States hesitation in recognizing the NTC may have been due to a lack of faith in the organizational capacity the rebels have to unite the nation’s disparate groups under a single banner. It seems their fears may not have been unfounded.