"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.
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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.
Zeidan had suggested on Sunday that his government had not been
informed of the U.S. plan ahead of the raid, saying that his
administration had contacted U.S. authorities "to ask them to provide an
explanation."
The suspect, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas
al-Liby, was wanted by the U.S. for his alleged role in the 1998
bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Afrida.
Two years after a revolution toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's central
government has been struggling to contain rival tribal groups and
fighters who control parts of the country.
Early Thursday, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the abduction and called for Zeidan's immediate release.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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