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| Africa North | |
| Corinthia Hotel attack | |
| 2015-01-28 | |
| [Libya Herald] Gunmen claiming to belong to Daesh today attacked the Corinthia Hotel, the unofficial headquarters of the antigovernment of Omar A-Hassi, killing three guards, possibly more, and detonating a boom-mobile in the car park as guests fled though services doors. A firefight has been taking place between Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... security forces who reportedly entered the hotel. There are reports that the attackers, believed to number five, have seized hostages. It is unclear if any members of the Hassi regime, including Hassi himself, are trapped in the building. There are reports that he may have been evacuated along with eight Americans from a service entrance. At least one staff member, believed to be from the Philippines has been injured. The News Agency that Dare Not be Named has quoted Essam Al-Naas, of the Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... Security Agency, as saying that there was now a continuing stand off. The agency said it was also told by a member of the hotel staff that the masked attackers, wearing bullet-proof vests had burst past the security post outside the building and fired at random at staff in the hotel's lobby. The Libya Herald has been told by someone close to the hotel that a warning of an imminent attack may have been received last night. The Maltese-run Corinthia Hotel has 299 rooms, of which it is reported only ten percent are currently occupied. British, Turkish and Italian guests have been mentioned as being in the hotel at the time of the attack. The pro-Libya Dawn TV station Al-Nabaa has said it had seen a post on a Daesh-linked web site which claimed that the onslaught had been carried out by the "Abu Anas Al-Libi Assault". This is a clear reference to Nazih Al-Ruqaii, alias Abu Anas Al-Libi, seized outside his Tripoli home in October 2013 and taken into US custody. Libi died of liver cancer at the start of this month, just before his New York trial was due to open. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... r vowed to avenge his death. When Libi's body was returned to Tripoli on 10 January, Hassi's Minister for Wounded and Martyrs in the Hassi Mohammed Al-Jazwi, called Libi "a hero". Hassi himself as described Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... as "beautiful". Libya Dawn, which controls the capital, has persistently insisted that Daesh is not present in the capital, despite growing evidence of the fact. The former prime minister Ali Zeiden also based himself in the Corinthia, from where he was kidnapped in October 2013. On that occasion the attackers gained entry by telling hotel security staff that they had a warrant for his arrest.
After setting off a boom-mobile outside the luxury Corinthia Hotel in Libya's capital, three snuffies rushed inside and opened fire, Issam al-Naass, a security services front man, told AFP. They made it to the 24th floor of the hotel, a major hub of diplomatic and government activity, before being surrounded by security forces and detonating boom belts they were wearing, he said. The dead included three security guards killed in the initial attack, five foreigners rubbed out by the gunnies and a hostage who died when the attackers blew themselves up. Naass said the foreigners killed were an American, two Filipinas, a French citizen and a South Korean. He did not give their identities. At least five people were also maimed during the assault, including two Filipina employees hurt by broken glass from the boom-mobile, he said. The nationalities of the hostage who died was not immediately known. The head of Libya's self-declared government, Omar al-Hassi, was inside the hotel at the time of the attack but was evacuated safely, Naass said. | |
| Posted by:Fred |