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Gunmen Seize Libyan Prime Minister in Raid Gunmen in Tripoli Briefly Abduct Libyan Prime Minister
(about 3 hours later)
Libya’s prime minister, Ali Zeidan, was taken captive early Thursday from his residence by unknown gunmen in the capital, Tripoli, according to a statement by the Libyan government. CAIRO — Libya’s prime minister, Ali Zeidan, was briefly kidnapped from a Tripoli hotel on Thursday in an apparent act of retaliation for his supposed consent to the capture of a suspected Al Qaeda leader by American Special Forces.
“The head of the transitional government, Ali Zeidan, was taken to an unknown destination for unknown reasons by a group” of men believed to be former rebels, said the statement, which was excerpted on the Web site of Al Arabiya. He was seized before dawn and freed by early afternoon, according to Amal al Jarrari, a spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office, who could not immediately provide details.
The seizure comes as the Libyan government has faced criticism for last Saturday’s American raid to capture Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, a senior Qaeda militant who had been indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Senior American officials said the Libyan government tacitly approved that raid, along with another operation to seize a militia leader suspected of carrying out the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi. The short-lived kidnapping was an ominous sign for the stability of Libya’s transitional government and its cooperation with American counterterrorist efforts, Mr. Zeidan’s abductors appeared to be among the semiautonomous militias who serve as his government’s primary police and security force, according to a statements from the prime minister’s office and a coalition of militia leaders.
After the prime minister’s seizure, Reuters quoted an insurgent leader as saying that the operation was carried out because of the Libyan government’s prior knowledge of Saturday’s raid. A spokesman for the coalition, which calls it the Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries, said the prime minister’s “arrest” followed a statement by Secretary of State John Kerry that “the Libyan government was aware of the operation” that captured the Qaeda leader, Reuters reported.
“His arrest comes after the statement by John Kerry about the capture of Abu Anas al-Libi, after he said the Libyan government was aware of the operation,” said a spokesman for the group, known as the Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries, referring to the United States secretary of state and using Mr. Ruqai’s nom de guerre. The prime minister’s kidnapping was the most serious blow yet to the credibility of Libya’s fragile transitional government. And it also could be a grave setback for United States efforts to hunt down other terrorist suspects believed to be at large on Libyan soil, including those suspected of a role in the attack last year on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Mr. Zeidan took office in the fall of 2012 after previously working as a human rights lawyer in Geneva, where he was a leader of an exiled opposition group, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya. He was chosen as prime minister with the backing of the Parliament’s two largest blocs of voters — the relatively secular coalition formed around the wartime civilian leader Mahmoud Jibril, and the moderate Islamist coalition formed by Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. Zeidan’s government had said it had no warning or knowledge of the American commando raid last Saturday in which Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, the suspected Qaeda leader, was captured. In a statement, the government demanded an explanation for what it called “the kidnapping of a Libyan citizen” on the streets of the capital.
Mr. Zeidan’s government has teetered on the brink of collapse recently, particularly with revelations about the American raid last weekend. His government has little control over vast parts of the country, particularly in the eastern part near Benghazi. At a news conference on Tuesday, Justice Minister Salah al-Maghrani appeared shocked: “The news itself was definitely a surprise,” he said. “And having seen the prime minister the same night, I have not seen someone more surprised than the Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.”
The disclosure of the American raid, which was supposed to have been kept secret, led to concerns that the intended target of the other planned operation, Ahmed Abu Khattala, had been tipped off that the United States had the ability to conduct an operation in Libya. But United States officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Zeidan’s government had secretly authorized the arrest and possibly others. Members of the Libyan Parliament had vowed to remove him from office if evidence emerged that he knew in advance.
The Web site for Al Arabiya carried a picture that it said was issued by Mr. Zeidan’s captors, showing the prime minister while he was being held. The kidnapping on Thursday was the most ominous sign yet that Libya is sliding faster toward anarchy two years after the revolution that ended Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s four decades of dictatorship. And it may also serve as a warning to other Libyan officials who contemplate collaborating with the United States in its pursuit of alleged terrorists.
Mr. Zeidan, 62, was seized at the Corinthian, a heavily guarded luxury hotel that he and other government leaders use as a residence and meeting place, reportedly without a gunfight or resistance.
With no credible armed force of its own, Mr. Zeidan’s government has remained chronically enfeebled by its dependence on the freewheeling militias that formed in the aftermath of the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. The government still depends on the militias for some aspects of public security but they periodically use the threat of force to extort their own demands from the government as well.
The abductions of Mr. Ruqai and Mr. Zeidan have highlighted the vexed and contradictory relationship between Libya and the United States since the NATO bombing campaign that helped remove Colonel Qaddafi. While most Libyans remain overwhelmingly grateful for the intervention, they still suspect Washington and the West of hegemonic ambitions. Although they may oppose Qaeda or terrorism, Libyans across the political spectrum say they object to American military action on Libyan soil or the extradition of Libyan citizens for trial in American courts.
Those complaints have come to the fore since the American raid that captured Mr. Ruqai, also known as Abu Anas al-Libi. He is a senior Qaeda militant who was indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
There has been widespread speculation that the United States might also seek to apprehend some of the suspects in the Benghazi attack, including the militia leader Ahmed Abu Khattala, who lives and works openly in the city.
But any such attempts are now likely to be far more complicated because of the backlash over the Ruqai abduction and the retaliatory kidnapping of Mr. Zeidan. A former human rights lawyer who worked in Geneva and led an exiled opposition group, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, Mr. Zeidan was chosen as prime minister last fall with the backing of the Parliament’s two largest blocs — the relatively secular coalition formed around the wartime civilian leader Mahmoud Jibril, and the moderate Islamist coalition formed by Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Since then Mr. Zeidan has sought to strike a delicate balance between appealing to the West for help with Libyan security — which would bolster his central government — and avoiding any appearance of inviting foreign intervention. At the same time, he has struggled to resist pressure from the militia leaders without entering into an open confrontation he feared he would lose.
But he has come under heavy criticism from both sides. Some Islamists and militia leaders say they suspect him of conspiring with the West to take power away from the true guardians of Libya’s liberty — the militias, who call themselves “the revolutionaries.” Others, meanwhile, accuse him of giving in to militia pressure, most notably when he acquiesced to a sweeping purge of officials with connections to the Qaddafi government in response to a siege of government buildings by armed militias.

David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, and Gerry Mullany from Hong Kong. Suliman Ali Zway contributed reporting from Tripoli, and Carlotta Gall from Tunis.