Retaliation? “Libyan ex-rebel group says it ‘arrested’ PM Zeidan,” from AFP, October 10:
Tripoli (AFP) – A group of former rebels in Libya said Thursday it had “arrested” Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, after he was seized by gunmen from a Tripoli hotel in a dawn raid.
The Operations Cell of Revolutionaries, which in principle reports to the defence and interior ministries, said on Facebook it had seized Zeidan “on the prosecutor’s orders”.
The premier “was arrested under the Libyan penal code… on the instructions of the public prosecutor”, the group said.
The abduction comes five days after US commandos embarrassed and angered Libya’s government by capturing senior Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al-Libi off the streets of Tripoli and whisked him away to a warship.
“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 earlier in a brief statement on its website.
A source in the premier’s office said Zeidan had been kidnapped from Tripoli’s Corinthia Hotel, where he resides.
“A large number of armed men entered the place very early on Thursday. But we did not know what was happening,” a hotel employee told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity….