Libyan prime minister kidnapped by armed rebels

Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan has been kidnapped from a hotel in Tripoli.

 Local media reported he was escorted at dawn by armed rebels from the Corinthia Hotel in the capital and taken to an "undisclosed location".

CNN quoted a hotel clerk as saying the gunmen had arrived at the hotel in a convoy of cars before leading Mr Zeidan out of the building and driving him away.

The clerk reported no gunfire during the incident, and said the gunmen were respectful and "caused no trouble." One guard described it as an "arrest".

Initially, Mr Zeidan's office denied reports of the kidnapping, saying the abduction was a "rumour", but later posted a note on its Facebook page saying it had been "coerced by kidnappers to deny the report."

"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, the government said later in a brief statement on its website.

Al-Arabiya television channel quoted Libya's justice minister as saying that Mr Zeidan had been "kidnapped" and showed what it said were video stills of Mr Zeidan frowning and wearing a grey shirt undone at the collar surrounded by several men in civilian clothes pressing closely around him.

Mr Zeidan, a former Geneva-based human rights lawyer, took office in November 2012.

Earlier this week he called on the West to help stop militancy in Libya, telling the BBC his country was being used to export weapons throughout the region.

The kidnapping comes one day after Libyan Islamists threatened revenge on Westerners after al-Qaeda leader Abu Anas al-Libi was seized from his Tripoli home by US forces.

One Facebook page, run by "The Revolutionaries of Benghazi, Al-Bayda and Derna", said: "We condemn this act, and pledge before God to fight those who betrayed their country and involved themselves in this plot.

"We also say to the Libyan people that we didn't fight against the dead leader to replace him with a traitor or foreign agent who would deliver up our compatriots out of loyalty to the infidels."

Two years after a revolution toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's central government has been struggling to contain rival tribal militias and Islamist militants who control parts of the country.