Accessibility links

Breaking News

Eight Dead in Libya Hotel Attack

update

Libyan security forces and emergency services surround Tripoli's central Corinthia Hotel (R) in the Libyan capital, Jan. 27, 2015.
Libyan security forces and emergency services surround Tripoli's central Corinthia Hotel (R) in the Libyan capital, Jan. 27, 2015.

At least eight people were killed Tuesday in an attack on a Tripoli hotel popular with politicians and international visitors.

Libyan officials say five of the dead are foreigners and the other three were guards.

The U.S. State Department said an American was one of the victims, but gave no other information.

According to Libyan authorities, the gunmen set off a car bomb outside the Corinthia Hotel before storming the building and firing weapons. The attackers then blew themselves up.

A group calling itself the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State claimed responsibility in an online statement. It called the attack retaliation for the 2013 capture of Abu Anas al-Libi by U.S. forces in 2013.

Al-Libi was suspected in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He died earlier this month in a U.S. prison awaiting trial.

Material for this report came from AP and Reuters.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG