Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has reportedly been freed after being kidnapped by gunmen in a pre-dawn raid. He was reported to be in "good health and being treated well" after he was taken at a luxury Tripoli hotel where he lives.
Mr. Zeidan was being held at the interior ministry's anti-crime department, said an official there, after being seized by up to 150 armed men who arrived at the Corinthia Hotel in pick-up trucks.
Witnesses said a large group of them entered the building, some stayed in reception while others headed to the 21st floor where Mr. Zeidan was staying.
The gunmen scuffled with the prime minister's guards before they seized him and led him out at around 5.15am (local time), said the witnesses, adding he offered no resistance while he was being led away.
Two of his guards were also taken. The security pair were beaten up but later released, another official said. The government had said the PM was taken to an unknown location after being kidnapped by former rebels.
Mr. Zeidan's abduction reflected the weakness of the government, which is virtually held hostage by powerful militias, many of which are made up of Islamic militants.
A group of ex-rebels said it had 'arrested' Mr. Zeidan after US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed Libya's role in the US capture of alleged al Qaeda leader Abu Anas al Libi.
A spokesman for the group, known as the Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, said: "His arrest comes after...(Kerry) said the Libyan government was aware of the operation."
The militia group, which had been hired by the government to provide security in the city, said it had seized Mr Zeidan "on the prosecutor's orders".
The premier "was arrested under the Libyan penal code... on the instructions of the public prosecutor", it said, adding he was detained for "crimes and offences prejudicial to the state" and its security.
Reporter Tim Marshall said "If this claim is true, it would appear that the prime minister of Libya has been detained by a faction that answers nominally to part of his own government."
Sources said the man believed to be behind the abduction is Abu Obeiida, who is thought to have taken over the militia group.
The British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he condemned the abduction of the PM and had called for his immediate release. The former rebel group appeared to post a warning of its intentions on Facebook on Monday.
It said it "holds everyone who is involved in co-operating with foreign intelligence" responsible for the "kidnap" of al Libi and "will pursue them and bring them to justice".
Two years after a revolution toppled Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, the fragile central government has been struggling to contain tribal militias and groups of former rebels who spearheaded the uprising.
Marshall said "The prime minister of Libya's jurisdiction runs about to the end of his hotel corridor and then stops because there is no real government, certainly in the sense that we understand it. It is a lawless place that is falling apart into different factions, tribes, regions, areas and groups. The fact this man has been detained does not alter the trajectory of Libya’s spiral into chaos".
"What is very important about the fact that the PM can be taken from his hotel by armed men is symbolic of how bad things have got" he added.
There has been anger among militant groups over the US special forces operation on Saturday that seized al Libi, whose family met Mr. Zeidan hours before the PM's abduction. Several groups accused the government of colluding in or allowing the weekend raid, though the government denied having any prior knowledge of the operation.
Al Libi is suspected of being involved in the twin bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998. At the weekend, he was taken off the street in Tripoli and whisked away to a US warship in the Mediterranean.
Image: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
