Libyan Prime Minister Is Kidnapped, Then Freed
By David D. Kirkpatrick and Gerry Mullany, New York Times, Oct. 10, 2013

CAIRO — Libya’s prime minister, Ali Zeidan, was kidnapped from a hotel in the capital, Tripoli, on Thursday and briefly held in an apparent act of retaliation for his presumed consent to the capture of a suspected Qaeda leader by an American commando team. [....]

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 are members of one of the semiautonomous militias that serve as his government’s primary police and security force, according to statements from the prime minister’s office and a coalition of militia leaders.

A spokesman for the coalition, which calls itself the Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries, said the prime minister’s “arrest" came after a statement by Secretary of State John Kerry that “the Libyan government was aware of the operation” that captured the suspected Qaeda leader, Reuters reported.

The prime minister’s kidnapping was the most serious blow yet to the credibility of Libya’s fragile transitional government. And it could also be a grave setback for American efforts to hunt down other terrorist suspects believed to be at large on Libyan soil, including those suspected of playing a role in an attack last year on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Mr. Zeidan’s government has said it had no warning or knowledge of the American commando raid on Saturday in which Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, the suspected Qaeda leader, was captured. The government demanded an explanation for what it called “the kidnapping of a Libyan citizen” on the streets of the capital [....]

I could see believing in lots of conspiracy theories if stories like this happened in my country.

Libya PM says his abduction was attempted 'coup'
By Maggie Michael and Lee Keath, Associated Press, Oct. 11, 2013

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya's Western-backed prime minister on Friday said his brief abduction by gunmen this week was an attempted coup by his Islamist political rivals, using militias which he warned are trying to "terrorize" the government and turn the North African nation into another Afghanistan or Somalia. [....]

With his nationally televised address, embattled Prime Minister Ali Zidan appeared to be trying to leverage public shock over his abduction a day earlier into momentum against his political opponents and against the multiple armed groups stirring chaos [....]

Zidan also gave his first account of the events Thursday, when militiamen broke into the luxury Tripoli hotel where he lived before daybreak and took him away, holding him in a basement prison with criminals for hours until he was freed.

"This is a coup," he said, speaking alongside members of his government. "There are political rivals behind this ... a political group that plots to topple the government." He appeared to referring to Islamist blocs in parliament that have sought to remove him. "There is a force that wants to slaughter the state before it is established." [....]