Libyan PM says his kidnap was ‘attempted coup’

PanARMENIAN.Net - Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said his brief kidnap this week was an "attempted coup", blaming his political opponents for the attack.

According to BBC News, in a TV address to the nation, he said an unnamed political party in the congress was behind the abduction.

Zeidan was seized from a Tripoli hotel on Thursday, Oct 10, and held for several hours by armed militiamen. He praised the armed groups that came to rescue him and later called for calm in the increasingly lawless country.

In the TV address with members of his cabinet standing staunchly around him, Zeidan said that his kidnap "bears the hallmarks of an attempted coup d'etat against legitimacy".

"A political party", he said, was behind what he described as the "criminal and terrorist act".

Referring to his political opponents as a "dangerous minority", the prime minister said they had tried to secure enough votes in the congress to have him dismissed.

"When they failed to bring down the government through democratic means, they resorted to the use of force," he added.

The U.S., UK and France, along with the UN, have condemned the abduction and pledged their support for Libya's transition to democracy.

The motive of the abduction is unclear but some militias had been angered by last Saturday's U.S. commando raid in Tripoli to capture senior al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby.

Many militias are under the pay of the defense or interior ministries - in the absence of an effective police force or military - but their allegiance and who really controls them is in doubt.

Zeidan was taken in a pre-dawn raid on the Corinthia Hotel by more than 100 armed men.

Photographs showed Zeidan being surrounded and led away. There were no reports of violence during his capture.

The Prime Minister was reportedly held at the interior ministry anti-crime department in Tripoli, where an official said he was treated well.