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| In this image made from video posted by a Libyan blogger, the Cortinthia Hotel is seen under attack in Tripoli, Libya, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. Gunmen stormed the luxury hotel in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Tuesday, killing several foreigners and guards, officials said. The attack, which included a car bombing, struck the hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea. The blogger, @AliTweel, captured the moments shortly after the blast, when flames rose up from outside the hotel, appearing to be from the aftermath of the car bomb. |
TRIPOLI, Libya
(AP) -- In the latest sign of Libya's descent into chaos, gunmen
stormed a luxury hotel used by diplomats and businessmen in the capital
on Tuesday, killing 10 people, including an American, a French citizen
and three people from Asia.
Two attackers were
killed following an hourslong standoff that included a car bomb that
exploded in the parking lot of the seaside Corinthia Hotel. It was
unclear if other gunmen were involved in the attack, which also killed
five Libyan guards.
In Twitter posts and a
statement on social media, a Tripoli affiliate of the Islamic State
group was said to be behind the attack, but there was little evidence to
back up the claims in a country that has been awash in armed extremist
groups who would be equally suspect.
The SITE
intelligence group reported that the two dead gunmen were identified
online as sympathizers of IS and said the militants said the hotel was
targeted because it houses diplomatic missions and "crusader" security
companies. However, The Associated Press was unable to independently
confirm the claims, which didn't conform with the group's earlier
postings from Libya.
Militants claiming the
attack on behalf of a group called the Islamic State of the Tripoli
Province posted a brief video showing burned cars in the hotel's parking
lot and said it was to avenge the 2013 abduction by American commandos
of a Libyan al-Qaida operative, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, also known
as Abu Anas al-Libi. Al-Ruqai died earlier this month in a New York
hospital of complications from liver surgery while awaiting trial for
the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The
assault highlights the growing threat from militant groups that operate
with near impunity in a country torn between rival governments since
the 2011 toppling and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Since
Gadhafi's ouster, the country has been torn among competing militias
and tribes vying for power. Libya's post-Gadhafi transition has
collapsed, with two rival governments and parliaments - each backed by
different militias - ruling in the country's eastern and western
regions.
Amid the bloody political rivalry,
multiple armed groups have emerged, including radical Islamist militias
who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, including one based in
the eastern city of Derna, a stronghold of radical groups, as well as
regional militias and groups loyal to the former regime.
Tripoli,
which has been controlled by Islamist militiamen mostly from the
western city of Misrata since the summer, has been hit with a series of
car bombs and shootings. The internationally recognized government has
been forced to relocate to the country's east, where a former general
has waged an offensive against Islamist militias, including Ansar
al-Shariah, blamed for the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Benghazi that left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead.
A
senior U.S. State Department official confirmed that a U.S. citizen was
among those killed in Tuesday's attack, but did not provide further
details. Cliff Taylor, the CEO of a Virginia security company, Crucible
LLC, identified the slain American as David Berry, a contractor with his
company.
A French national and three citizens
of a former Soviet republic were also among the dead, according to a
spokesman for a Tripoli security agency, Essam al-Naas.
The
Malta-owned Corinthia hotel, among the most luxurious in Tripoli, is
frequented by diplomats and foreign businessmen visiting Libya, and is
also where the United Nations support mission in Libya usually holds its
meetings. The mission is currently hosting political talks with rival
Libyan groups in Geneva, trying to resolve the country's political and
security crisis.
The hotel had Italian,
British and Turkish guests but was largely empty at the time of the
attack, according to hotel staff members. There was also a visiting
American delegation.
The militia-backed
government in Tripoli said the target was Prime Minister Omar al-Hassi,
who normally resides at the hotel but was not there at the time of the
attack. Spokesman Amr Baiou told reporters al-Hassi was unharmed.
A security official in Tripoli, Omar al-Khadrawi, said initial investigations pointed to a group of former Gadhafi loyalists.
Reports about how the attack unfolded were conflicting and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.
Hotel
staffers initially said that five masked gunmen stormed the Corinthia
after security guards at the hotel's gate tried to stop them, firing
randomly at the staff in the lobby as guests fled out the hotel's back
doors into the parking lot.
One staffer said a
car bomb exploded in the parking lot after a protection force entered
the lobby and opened fire on the gunmen. Two guards were immediately
killed, according to the staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he feared being targeted by militants.
The car bomb incinerated at least five cars in the parking lot and damaged windows in the hotel's facade, he said.
Al-Naas,
the security agency spokesman, said after a standoff of several hours,
the attackers threw a grenade at the security forces on the hotel's 24th
floor, killing themselves and a security guard. Ten people were also
wounded in the attack, including security guards and guests.
"The
operation is over," al-Naas said but added that the streets around the
Corinthia remained closed. He said an investigation was underway and the
car used by the gunmen is believed to be the same one used in an
assault on the Algerian embassy 10 days ago that wounded three guards.
The
U.N. Security Council condemned the attack "in the strongest terms" and
urged all countries to help bring "the perpetrators, organizers,
financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to
justice." In a statement approved by all 15 members, the council also
urged all parties in Libya "to engage constructively" with U.N. envoy
Bernardino Leon and resume "an inclusive political process aimed at
addressing the political and security challenges" facing Libya.
The
Corinthia previously came under attack in 2013 when gunmen abducted
then prime minister Ali Zeidan, who was living there. He was released
several hours later.
