Gunmen try to kill Libya’s recognized PM

Associated Press

BENGHAZI, LIBYA

Gunmen tried to assassinate Libya’s internationally recognized prime minister on his way to the airport in the eastern city of Tobruk on Tuesday, a spokesman for his government said.

Arish Said, head of the government’s media department, said that Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni’s motorcade was attacked and one of his guards was lightly wounded but that there were no fatalities.

“They managed to escape,” Said said.

Before the attack, he said armed men who had been protesting outside a session of the Tobruk government’s House of Representatives tried to storm the building, firing shots into the air and demanding al-Thinni be removed from office.

They were “threatening to kill the prime minister and force the House to sack him,” Said said.

He identified the men as being funded by “corrupted political financiers” linked to powerful Tobruk tribal leaders, without elaborating.

The session was postponed until next week before the attempted assassination.