BEFORE he “resigned” last August, Fawzi Abd al-Aali, the former Libyan interior minister, said: “They are armed, I am not going to fight a losing battle and kill my men over a demolished shrine.”

BRITISH spies accused of helping in the rendition and torture of two Libyan rebels will be investigated by police, officials said.

THE killing of al-Qaida’s number two leader deprives the group of a multi-talented manager who helped it spawn offshoots around the world and survive a US counter-terrorism campaign in Pakistan, analysts say.

Libya’s rebels began as a disparate group of former government insiders, Western-leaning intellectuals, businessmen and even a smattering of ex-Islamist militants.