LaNUBlog™

The newly appointed Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni is stepping down after he and his family were attacked by a militia. A statement released by the Prime Minister said that "no one was injured in the attack, but it was very close." Mr al-Thinni was only confirmed as PM last week after Ali Zeidan was sacked for failing to improve security.

"They have various agendas -- financial, territorial, political, religious -- and operate with impunity two years after the Gadhafi regime ended. Successive interim governments have failed to assert control over these militias, preferring to contract them as parallel forces to the army and police." In a statement issued Thursday, the rights group said it was "deeply troubled" by Zeidan's detention, which it described as a clear violation of Libyan law. "The incident highlights the grave security conditions in Libya today. Hopefully it will refocus attention on the urgent need to strengthen both the country's security forces and its judicial systems," it said. Recent attacks have added to the uncertainty in Libya. Gangs of armed men have surrounded key ministries, including the Justice Ministry, trying to force out members of the democratically elected government. Libyan Justice Minister Salah Marghani was forced to evacuate after armed militia...

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan appealed for calm Thursday in his first public comments since he was freed after being abducted by militia gunmen for several hours. In remarks to a Cabinet meeting broadcast on Libyan state TV, Zeidan said he did not want to see the situation escalate and urged Libyans to show "wisdom." Zeidan's abduction from a luxury hotel early Thursday highlighted the security threat posed by militias that have run rampant in Libya since the revolution that ousted Moammar Gadhafi two years ago. "These types of groups exploit these types of gaps that exist in the country at the moment, given the fact that we are in the process of building our criminal justice system," Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdelaziz told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. But the prime minister appeared to play down his kidnapping, characterizing it as an internal political problem. "I want to reassure the foreigners inside Libya that this issue happened with...

*. Numerous militias formed to topple Gaddafi still operate *. Many still control the towns or areas where they were formed *. Some believed to have links to al-Qaeda *. Government has been unable to disarm them, instead it works with some militias *. Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room, which says it seized the prime minister, has links to defence and interior ministries *. It condemned the US raid to seize al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby Qustions &Answers: Lawless Libya. > Why militias are up in arms Might of militias challenges Libya The prime minister was reportedly held at the interior ministry anti-crime department in Tripoli, where an official said he was treated well. LaNUBlog has been told that local armed residents backed by brigades from nearby districts had rescued the PM, our correspondent in Tripoli, Rana Jawad, says. The PM later appeared at a cabinet meeting broadcast live on Libyan television. He thanked those who had taken part in the security op...

*. Numerous militias formed to topple Gaddafi still operate *. Many still control the towns or areas where they were formed *. Some believed to have links to al-Qaeda *. Government has been unable to disarm them, instead it works with some militias *. Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room, which says it seized the prime minister, has links to defence and interior ministries *. It condemned the US raid to seize al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby Qustions &Answers: Lawless Libya. > Why militias are up in arms Might of militias challenges Libya The prime minister was reportedly held at the interior ministry anti-crime department in Tripoli, where an official said he was treated well. LaNUBlog has been told that local armed residents backed by brigades from nearby districts had rescued the PM, our correspondent in Tripoli, Rana Jawad, says. The PM later appeared at a cabinet meeting broadcast live on Libyan television. He thanked those who had taken part in the security op...

The US, UK and France, along with the UN, have condemned the brief abduction of Libya's PM and pledged their support for its transition to democracy. US Secretary of State John Kerry called the act "thuggery", while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged all Libyans to respect the rule of law. Ali Zeidan was abducted from a Tripoli hotel and held for several hours by armed militiamen. He praised the armed groups that came to rescue him and has called for calm. The motive of the abduction is unclear but some militias had been angered by last Saturday's US commando raid in Tripoli to capture senior al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby. Many militias are under the pay of the defence or interior ministries - in the absence of an effective police force or military - but their allegiance and who really controls them is in doubt. 'Calm and measured' The US denounced the kidnapping. Mr Kerry said: "Libyans did not risk their lives in their 2011 revolution to tol...

Rabat - Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan insisted on Tuesday that Libyan citizens must be tried in their own country, days after US special forces captured a suspected al-Qaeda leader in Tripoli. Earlier, the Libyan government said it had summoned US ambassador Deborah Jones to seek clarification about the raid on Saturday, in which Abu Anas al-Libi was snatched from his car in broad daylight. "We insist that Libyan citizens must be tried in Libya, and Libya will not deliver its citizens abroad for trial," Zeidan told reporters in Rabat, at the end of an official visit to Morocco. But he said Libya valued its "important" relationship with the United States, "which has helped us since the start of the revolution," adding: "Our concern about our citizens is another duty and responsibility." On Sunday, Tripoli said it had demanded an explanation from Washington over the "kidnap" of one of its citizens. Libi - whose real name is N...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has defended the capture of an alleged al-Qaeda leader, Anas al-Liby, calling him a "legal and appropriate target". He is a suspected mastermind of the 1998 US embassy attacks in Africa. His son, Abdullah al-Raghie, said his father was seized by masked gunmen and that some of them were Libyans. Mr Kerry's comments come after Libya called on the US to explain the raid on its territory, one of two by US commandos in Africa on Saturday. Mr Kerry said Anas al-Liby, who has been on the FBI's most wanted list for more than a decade with a $5m (£3.1m) bounty on his head, would face justice in a court of law. "With respect to Abu Anas al-Liby, he is a key al-Qaeda figure, and he is a legal and an appropriate target for the US military," Mr Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Indonesia. 'Kidnap' Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan's office said he had asked fo...

The twin US commando raids to seize senior al-Qaeda operatives in two different African countries on 5 October show Washington's preference for highly targeted special operations where it believes its mission has a high probability of success. While the Obama administration has sought to avoid or extract itself from big, costly theatres of conflict like Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria, it has invested heavily in the joint counter-terrorism and special operations sphere, to go after what the US calls "high-value targets". But how effective in the long run are raids like the ones in Libya and Somalia over the weekend? In Libya, US Army Delta Force commandos achieved exactly what they set out to do. When the most highly trained commandos from the most powerful military in the world attack a sandal-wearing militia and are forced to retreat, this will be seized on as a propaganda victory for al-Shabab Deploying from a forward base in a Nato country, they apprehended a fugitive...

The US defence department also confirmed that special forces had carried out a seaborne operation in Somalia's coastal town of Barawe on Saturday. Pentagon spokesman George Little said the forces had been "involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al-Shabab terrorist". He gave no further details. Initial reports in the US media quoted unnamed US officials as saying that the suspect had been captured or killed by US Navy Seals in the pre-dawn raid on a villa. However, the officials later said that the Seals failed to find the intended target. Prime Minister Saiid said on Sunday: "We have collaboration with the world and with neighbouring countries in the battle against al Shabab... our interest is to get a peaceful Somalia, free from terrorism." The raid was carried out by members of Seal Team Six - the same unit that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, a US military official told AP. The official added that in Barawe the commandos had d...

Libya's prime minister has called on Washington to explain a special forces raid on its territory, one of two by US commandos in Africa on Saturday. Ali Zeidan's office said he had asked for clarification and stressed Libya was "keen on prosecuting any Libyan citizen inside Libya". The raid captured al-Qaeda leader Anas al-Liby, who the US says is "currently lawfully detained outside of Libya". The other raid was in southern Somalia but failed to capture its target. The commando raid there was believed to have focused on a leader of the al-Shabab militant group, which says it carried out last month's attack on the Westgate shopping centre in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, leaving at least 67 people dead. Analysis ByFrank Gardner BBC security correspondent This weekend's twin raids by US commandos to target America's enemies in Africa are the result of intensive planning by US intelligence agencies and Special Operations Command. The Libyan...

Tripoli - Gunmen attacked a Libyan military post southeast of the capital Tripoli early on Saturday, killing at least 15 soldiers, an official and Libya's state news agency said. The attackers rode vehicles topped with machineguns, the military official said. The highway between the towns of Tarhuna and Bani Walid, on which the post was located, was closed immediately after the attack in an attempt to track down the attackers. The official said the attack took place at Wishtata area, some 60km from the entrance to Bani Walid. The town was one of the last strongholds for supporters of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in the country's 2011 civil war, and was besieged again by pro-government militias last year. More recently, Libya has been hit by a months-long wave of attacks targeting military officers, activists, judges and security agents. Much of the violence is blamed on armed groups with their origins in the anti-Gaddafi rebel movement. The official spoke on condition of anonym...

Gunmen have attacked a military checkpoint south-east of the Libyan capital Tripoli killing 15 soldiers, the authorities say. A military official said the attack was near Bani Walid, a stronghold in 2011 of supporters of former leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Several more soldiers are reported to have been injured. It is not clear who carried out the attack, but the government has struggled to control armed groups. The official, describing it as an ambush, said the attack took place on a road between Bani Walid city and the town of Tarhouna. The troops came under heavy fire from the gunmen who drove vehicles with mounted machine guns, the official said. An army captain was quoted as saying five soldiers were wounded in the attack in the Wishtata district. The main road to Bani Walid was closed while the incident was investigated. The lack of central government control over large swathes of Libya has left room for armed groups linked to clans and Islamist militants to thrive, analysts ...

All staff and family members have been evacuated from the Russian embassy in Libya after gunmen attacked the compound in the capital, Tripoli. The foreign ministry in Moscow announced that the evacuees had arrived in neighbouring Tunisia, from where they planned to fly back to Russia. It suggested the incident was a revenge attack after the alleged killing of a Libyan by a Russian citizen. Two Libyans were reportedly also killed during the assault on the embassy. The Russian foreign ministry said its diplomats in Tunis would maintain ties with Libya. No Russian casualties were reported during the attack on Wednesday but a car and other property were damaged. An attack last year on a US compound in the city of Benghazi killed four people, including the US ambassador, while a car bomb outside the French embassy in April injured two French guards and a number of residents. Analysis Russian-Libyan ties appear to have steadily improved in the past two years. The two countries have ...

Torture and ill-treatment, sometimes resulting in death, is "widespread" in Libyan jails, a new UN report says. The report saystorture is most frequent used "immediately after arrest and during the first days of interrogation". The UN estimates about 8,000 people are still being held in relation to the 2011 conflict which ended in the overthrow of Col Gaddafi. The vast majority are being held without due process, the report says. Torture is being used "as a means to extract confessions or other information", the UN says. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya says it has recorded 27 deaths in custody since late 2011 "where there is significant information to suggest that torture was the cause", with 11 of the cases occurring in 2013. The report does note however that the use of torture is happening "despite the efforts of the Libyan authorities which are committed at the highest level to ending torture and to ensuring the proper functio...