ONE facet of the Gaddafi-free Libya few people seem to raise concerns the thousands of guns in the country, ranging from simple side-arms through grenade-launchers, to multi-barrel anti-aircraft machine-guns, and most held by rebels.

A heavily armed civilian population has never been a part of the various liberations aided and abetted by the West and could be a nightmare looming.

These rebels, while united by the common cause of ridding Libya of Gaddafi, will belong to many different tribes and will not be slow to use this weaponry to enforce their views.

Ironically, too, a huge amount of these weapons will have been supplied by the West.

The way Gaddafi was dragged out of that culvert, beaten up and then shot is a forewarning of how these rebels may behave.

Contrast the way Saddam Hussein was captured. He, too, sought refuge underground but, when found, he was unearthed by US troops, who brought him back unharmed to their HQ, where he was imprisoned, treated exactly the way a POW must be treated, put on trial, found guilty and executed.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge, York.