Gunmen kidnap Libyan deputy foreign minister: official

Reuters
Homes are seen damaged after clashes between members of the Libyan pro-government forces, backed by the locals, and Shura Council of Libyan Revolutionaries, an alliance of former anti-Gaddafi rebels who have joined forces with Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, in Benghazi January 21, 2015. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped the deputy foreign minister of Libya's internationally recognized government on Saturday, the interior minister said. The gunmen took Hassan al-Saghir from a hotel where he was staying in the eastern city of Bayda, Interior Minister Omar al-Zanki said on Sunday. Kidnappings have become frequent in the North African country, where two governments and parliaments, allied to different armed factions, are vying for legitimacy and control four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. Abdullah al-Thinni, the internationaly recognized prime minister of Libya, and his cabinet have been based in the east since a group called Libya Dawn seized the capital of Tripoli in August and reinstated the old assembly known as General National Congress assembly. The elected parliament, the House of Representatives, has been forced to work in the remote eastern city of Tobruk near the border with Egypt.