Head of Libyan Transitional Government Kidnapped
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was kidnapped Thursday by armed men and taken to an unknown location, the government said.
“The head of the transitional government, Ali Zeidan, was taken to an unknown destination for unknown reasons by a group” of men believed to be former rebels, the government said in a brief statement on its website.
Gunmen broke into the hotel where the prime minister was staying in the capital, Tripoli, and kidnapped him early Thursday morning, Al-Arabiya, a Saudi news channel, reported.
A former Libyan rebel group, The Libyan Revolutionary Operations Chamber, said on its Facebook page Thursday that it had “arrested” Zeidan after the government allowed the United States to capture Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al-Liby in Tripoli last weekend.
The group said it had seized the prime minister “on the prosecutor’s orders,” and added that Zeidan was “arrested under the Libyan penal code … on the instructions of the public prosecutor.”
“His arrest comes after the statement by (U.S. Secretary of State) John Kerry about the capture of Abu Anas al-Liby, after he said the Libyan government was aware of the operation,” a spokesman for the group said.
More: Government: Libya Prime Minister Kidnapped by Armed Men