Nine killed as gunmen storm luxury hotel in Libyan capital

Nine people including at least five foreigners were killed Tuesday in an assault on a luxury hotel in the Libyan capital Tripoli, a spokesman for the security services said. The dead included three security guards killed in the initial attack on the Corinthia Hotel, five foreigners shot dead by gunmen and another person taken hostage by the attackers, Issam al-Naass said. The nationalities of the foreigners and the person taken hostage were not immediately known, but Naass said two of the foreigners were women. The hostage died when the three gunmen blew themselves up after being surrounded on an upper floor, Naass said.

After being pursued and surrounded on the hotel’s 24th floor, the attackers detonated explosive belts they were wearing.

Essam Naass, security spokesman

It was one of the worst assaults targeting foreigners since the 2011 civil war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi and fractured the oil-producing North African state into fiefdoms of rival armed groups with two national governments, both claiming legitimacy. A militant group claiming affiliation with the Islamic State has claimed responsibility on social media, saying the attack was revenge for the death of Abu Anas al-Liby, the suspected al Qaeda figure alleged to have helped plan the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. He died in hospital this month in New York ahead of his scheduled trial.

Africa Tripoli