BENGHAZI: Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said yesterday his hours-long kidnapping was a coup attempt, as a car bombing outside Sweden’s consulate in second city Benghazi underlined Libya’s increasing lawlessness.
“I do not think that more than 100 armed vehicles can seal off the hotel district (in Tripoli) to people without a command being given,” he said in a televised address.
“This bears the hallmarks of an attempted coup d’etat against legitimacy,” said Zeidan, who was abducted on Thursday from the Corinthia hotel, where he had been living for several months for security reasons.
The assailants had presented the hotel with a fake arrest warrant allegedly issued by the prosecutor general.
Zeidan said “a political party” was behind what he termed the “criminal and terrorist act.” He appeared to be referring to the Justice and Construction Party, the political wing of Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist blocs.
The prime minister, regarded as a liberal, said the unnamed party had tried but failed earlier in the week to garner enough votes in the National General Congress, Libya’s highest political authority, to have him dismissed.
“When they failed to bring down the government through democratic means, they resorted to the use of force.”
Zeidan said his political detractors had blocked legislation on a national budget and efforts to establish a new army with the aim of “pushing the country towards chaos.”
A car bomb set off a loud explosion yesterday in front of the Swedish consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, causing serious damage but no casualties, Colonel Abdullah Zaidi said. The Swedish mission is one of the few remaining diplomatic offices in Benghazi, which was the cradle of the uprising but now frequently sees attacks on security forces.
AFP
