To reduce the chances of a tribal backlash, the rebels recruited soldiers and mediators from the same tribe for the assault, Mr. Sagazly said. He declined to name the tribe for fear of insulting it, noting that “most of the sons of the tribe” sided against the group in the factory. He also said that the group in the factory turned out to include some fighters from other tribes and even from other North African countries.

Through the weekend, rebel leaders continued to issue various conflicting and incomplete accounts of the circumstances surrounding the death of General Younes, perhaps trying to tamp down anger over the death among the general’s tribe, the Obeidi, the largest in the eastern Libya.

There were reports on Sunday that the rebel government was moving to name another member of General Younes’s tribe, Suleiman al-Obeidi, as his successor. And whatever suspicious there may have been about General Younes, rebel officials now universally refer to him as a “martyr.”

The various official explanations of General Younes’s death that have emerged generally say he died after he was brought back from the front lines by a group of rebel soldiers bearing some kind of summons — a subpoena in some accounts, an arrest warrant in others. Officials have at some times suggested that he was to be questioned about tactical matters or supply shortages, and at others that it was a criminal summons.

Because of his former top role in the Qaddafi government — he was one of the officers who took part in Colonel Qaddafi’s 1969 coup and later presided over the detention and torture of untold numbers of dissidents — General Younes had no shortage of enemies in the rebel camp, and many people suspected the general of having divided loyalties. At his funeral, his son reportedly called out for a return to Colonel Qaddafi’s rule. His body was found badly burned and riddled with bullets.

The aftermath of his death also suggested tensions within the rebels’ ruling council. A spokesman for the rebels’ defense minister has said the minister canceled the summons or arrest warrant for the general, and the group of soldiers who delivered it acted in error. The spokesman, Ahmed Bani, even questioned the authority of the rebel minister of finance, Ali Tahouni, who seemed to offer a conflicting account at another news conference. “Mr. Tahouni is responsible for the oil fields,” Mr. Bani said. “He is not authorized to speak on behalf of the military. He just said to you what is being said on the street.”