Suspicion over the recent murder of the opposition forces commander Abdel Fattah Younes has fallen on a group of Islamists from the town of Derna, in eastern Libya.<br /><br />Muammar Gaddafi's government has described the town as a "hotbed of religious fundamentalism" with widespread ties to al-Qaeda, a claim that that the town's residents adamantly refute.<br /><br />Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son, has told the New York Times that he is forging an alliance with Islamist fighters against their liberal allies, in what appears to be a bid to divide the Libyan opposition groups.<br /><br />The newspaper interviewed Ali Sallabi, a senior Islamist opposition leader, who confirmed he had been in contact with Gaddafi's son.<br /><br />But he denied forging an alliance with the ruling family, pledged his continued support for the opposition and denied a split with the liberal wing of the six-month-old uprising.<br /><br />"Saif al-Islam's statement is baseless. It's a lie that seeks to create a crack in the national accord," Sallabi said.<br /><br />"Our dialogue with them [Gaddafi's family] is always based on three points: Gaddafi and his sons must leave Libya, the capital [Tripoli] must be protected from destruction and the blood of Libyans must be spared. There is no doubt about these constants.<br /><br />"We support pluralism and justice. Libyans have the right to build a democratic state and political parties."<br /><br />Sallabi said relations between the Islamists and secularists in Libya are "strong".<br /><br />Meanwhile, on the ground, the opposition scored a significant victory on Thursday, bringing a ship with a seized cargo of government-owned fuel into their port.<br /><br />The docking in Benghaz, the opposition stronghold, of the Cartagena, a tanker carrying at least 30,000 tonnes of petrol, is expected to boost the uprising, which has won broad international military and diplomatic backing but is struggling to remove Gaddafi.<br /><br />Gaddafi has so far remained in control of the capital, Tripoli, despite severe fuel shortages and opposition advances on three fronts, backed since March by Western air raids.
