Gunmen Assault Luxury Libya's Tripoli Hotel, at Least Nine Dead
Gunmen stormed a hotel in Tripoli popular with diplomats and officials Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, killing at least nine people, including five foreigners, before blowing themselves up.
After setting off a car bomb outside the luxury Corinthia Hotel in Libya's capital, three militants rushed inside and opened fire, Issam al-Naass, a security services spokesman, told AFP.
They made it to the 24th floor of the hotel, a major hub of diplomatic and government activity, before being surrounded by security forces and detonating explosive belts they were wearing, he said.
The dead included three security guards killed in the initial attack, five foreigners shot dead by the gunmen and a hostage who died when the attackers blew themselves up.
Naass said the foreigners killed were an American, two Filipinas, a French citizen and a South Korean. He did not give their identities.
At least five people were also wounded during the assault, including two Filipina employees hurt by broken glass from the car bomb, he said.
The nationalities of the hostage who died was not immediately known.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki had said earlier there was a report of an American having been killed, but that it could not be confirmed
"This attack cannot be allowed to impede the critical work that is underway to find a political solution" in Libya, she said.
The hotel's 24th floor is normally used by Qatar's mission to Libya, but no diplomats or officials were present during the assault, a security source said.
The head of Libya's self-declared government, Omar al-Hassi, was inside the hotel at the time of the attack but was evacuated safely, Naass said.
In a statement on Twitter, the Tripoli branch of the Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
It said the attack was in honour of Abu Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaida suspect who died in the United States earlier this month, days before facing a trial for bombing U.S. embassies.
A video posted on jihadist forums showed an image of one of the alleged perpetrators.
Several militant groups in Libya have pledged allegiance to IS, the Sunni extremist organization that has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic "caliphate".
Security forces loyal to Hassi's government, which is jostling for power with the internationally backed authority of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani, surrounded the building during the assault.
The government in Tripoli said Tuesday's attack was an assassination attempt on Hassi it blamed on "enemies of the revolution and the war criminal Khalifa Haftar", a former general who last year spearheaded an operation against Islamist militias in second city Benghazi.
Ambulances, armoured vehicles and pick-up trucks with mounted artillery could be seen around the hotel during the assault.
Security forces prevented journalists from entering the hotel after the assault, saying work was needed inside to ensure the assailants had not left behind booby traps.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini condemned the attack, calling it "another reprehensible act of terrorism which deals a blow to efforts to bring peace and stability to Libya."
She expressed "solidarity with the victims and their families" but made no mention of the nationalities of the dead.
A new round of U.N.-mediated peace talks between Libya's rival factions kicked off in Geneva Monday as they seek to implement a roadmap on forming a unity government.
The North African nation has been wracked by conflict since the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a 2011 uprising, with rival governments and powerful militias now battling for control of key cities and the country's oil riches.
The Islamist-backed Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia alliance took control of Tripoli last summer, forcing Thani's government to flee to the remote east.
The luxurious Corinthia was long considered a haven in a city beset by unrest, with officials, diplomats and foreign businessmen crossing paths in its lavish reception area.
In October 2013, gunmen seized then prime minister Ali Zeidan from the hotel, where he was residing. He was released after several hours.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and then French president Nicolas Sarkozy met top officials at the hotel in September 2011, when they were the first foreign leaders to visit Libya after Kadhafi's ouster.
In Benghazi meanwhile, 22 people were killed and 68 wounded in fighting since Monday evening, a security source said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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