Libya Rebel Group Wants NTC Ministers Fired over Younis Murder

The unity of Libya's revolutionaries on Wednesday became the latest casualty of the shock assassination of a top general, as a key rebel group demanded senior ministers and military brass be fired.

The head of the February 17 Coalition -- whose members kick-started the revolt against Moammar Gadhafi -- told Agence France Presse the ministers of defense and international affairs must be sacked in the wake of last week's murder of General Abdul Fatah Younis.

Abdul Salam al-Musmari, a judge who heads the coalition, criticized the events leading up to the Younis murder and the governing National Transitional Council's handling of its aftermath.

The facts surrounding the Younis shooting last Thursday remain opaque, with senior members of the NTC giving incomplete and sometimes contradictory accounts of how he died, who killed him and the motive for the murder.

"We have two main demands," Musmari said. "The resignations of the defense minister (Jallal al-Digheily) and his deputy and for all the armed groups to fall under the national army or lay down their weapons."

In a separate written statement the February 17 Coalition also demanded the sacking of Ali Alasawi -- the NTC's minister for international affairs -- and a probe into his approval of a warrant for Younis' arrest.

The blistering criticism marks the most public sign yet of tensions between Libya's revolutionaries and the NTC that has come to be their de-facto government.