General Abdel Fatah Younes, a former senior official in Moammar Gaddafi's regime who defected to lead rebel forces, has died, the head of the rebel National Transitional Council (TNC) said Thursday.
"With all sadness, I inform you of the passing of Abdel Fatah Younes, the commander-in-chief of our rebel forces," NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said.The
The National Transitional Council announced the death of just hours after they arrested him for questioning about suspicions his family still had ties to Gaddafi's regime.
The BBC reports NTC head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil as saying Younes was killed by pro-Gaddafi assailants before the party arrived for questioning.
Two aids were also killed, the BBC reports, adding that the head of the group responsible had been arrested, according to the TNC.
Younes was Gaddafi's interior minister before defecting.
Meanwhile, rebels seized two localities near the Tunisian border on Thursday as part of their pre-Ramadan offensive aimed at unseating Gaddafi, an AFP correspondent said.
The first was the town of Al-Ghazaya, some 12 kilometres (nine miles) from the frontier and the second was Umm Al-Far, a hamlet of a few hundred inhabitants 10 kilometres northeast of there.
The assault on Al-Ghazaya began at around 8:00 am (0600 GMT) in a two-pronged attack from the east and west that appeared to have drived loyalists out, as the town was deserted when they entered.
However, ammunition was found stored in a school and other public villages in the town.
The rebels then moved on to Umm Al-Far and bombarded it, blowing up a munitions dump. The hamlet fell around 5:00 pm, and rebels, mostly on foot, were moving through the streets to secure them a half hour later.
The capture of Al-Ghazaya, being used as a base by Kadhafi troops to fire rockets onto rebel forces in nearby Nalut town, followed a defiant speech by the Libyan leader that he is ready to "sacrifice" to ensure victory in the civil war.
The early morning assault from the surrounding mountains was part of the offensive by the rebels aimed at marching on Tripoli and toppling Gaddafi.
