Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime has taunted Britain over the death of rebel commander General Abdel Fattah Younes.

Tripoli said the killing showed that Britian was wrong to declare the National Transitional Council as the "sole authority" in Libya.

Mystery still surrounds the death of General Younes, a former government minister who defected to the rebels, who was shot earlier this week.





Rebels claim the commander and two aides were killed by gunmen after being recalled from the front.

However, the Gaddafi regime said al Qaeda - a group it claims is the strongest force within the rebel movement - was responsible.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters: "It is a nice slap to the face of the British that the council that they recognised could not protect its own commander of the army.





"By this act, al Qaeda wanted to mark out its presence and its influence in this region.

"The other members of the National Transitional Council knew about it but could not react because they are terrified of al Qaeda."

The general joined the rebels at the beginning of the Libyan uprising in February.

He had served at the heart of Gaddafi's regime since the 1969 coup.





Foreign Secretary William Hague announced Britain was recognising the NTC on Wednesday following similar moves by France and the US.

He expelled all remaining regime diplomats from Britain and handed the Libyan embassy in Knightsbridge, west London, over to the rebel council.

Mr Hague said the move would enable the UK to offer greater practical assistance to the rebels.

That starts with the unfreezing of assets worth £91 million belonging to the NTC-controlled Arabian Gulf Oil Company.





General Younes's body was found on Thursday, dumped outside the city, along with the bodies of two colonels who were his top aides. They had been shot and burned.

The NTC said it was investigating the atrocity and has blamed unidentified "gunmen".

Divisions among the rebels would weaken their campaign to oust Col Gaddafi, which has largely stalled despite the four-month Nato bombing campaign.

Thousands of people walked behind the victim's coffin as it was taken to the burial site. They chanted he was a martyr "beloved by God".