Hundreds of mourners chanting and firing guns into the air turned out to Benghazi's al-Hawari cemetery to bury Abdel Fattah Younes, the commander of the rebel armed forces, on Friday.

Younes was killed on Thursday after being summoned to appear before a judicial inquiry in Benghazi, the opposition capital in the country's east.

Rumours and theories abound over the circumstances of Younes's death. Ali Tarhouni, the opposition oil minister, has said that rebel fighters sent to bring Younes back from the front for the inquiry took justice into their own hands and gunned him and two aides down.

Some suspect the gunmen were religious extremists who had grievances against Younes for his decades-long role as Muammar Gaddafi's interior minister, during which he played a role in repressing conservative, anti-government Islamic groups.

But as members of the community paid their condolences to Younes's family, the identity of the killers remained unclear.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Benghazi.