Analysis - Too many cooks spoil Libya's rebel front

By Rania El Gamal

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - "The rebels" is a handy phrase -- but in reality there are about 40 different rebel groups and freelance militias fighting to end the long reign of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and it shows.

Some fight Gaddafi's troops on the front line while others handle security in rebel-held cities. And, in a country flooded with weapons, some gunmen are simply helping themselves to whatever they want, members of the armed opposition say.

The still unexplained killing of top rebel commander General Abdul Fattah Younes last week raised doubts about the loyalty to the rebel cause of some fighters.

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has done his best to exploit differences within the opposition, telling the New York Times he had made contact with Islamists among the rebels, and that a government-Islamist alliance would be announced within days.

He said he had been in contact with an Islamist rebel leader, Ali Sallabi -- who was quoted by the New York Times as acknowledging the contacts but as saying he remained allied with the liberal rebels trying to oust Gaddafi.

"Now the brigades and armed groups are too many. Every neighbourhood has one," said rebel fighter Yasser. "Some people use the weapons for crime and theft."

"Everyone knows how to use a gun," he said. "The Libyans are an armed people. Even my mother knows guns."

Yasser's brigade is officially recognised by the higher rebel authorities. It was raised in Benghazi by a handful of young men who took up guns to protect the neighbourhood against Gaddafi forces and criminals, and now numbers over 100 fighters.