TRIPOLI
Twelve people were killed Tuesday in an attack on a prominent hotel in Libya's western city of Tripoli, including four suicide bombers who perpetrated the attack.
"An explosion in Tripoli's Corinthia Hotel left eight people dead, including four hotel security personnel and four guests of different nationalities who have yet to be identified," read a statement issued by the Tripoli-based government.
A hotel official who declined to be named said that four suicide bombers had also been killed after detonating their explosive charges.
The Tobruk-based government, for its part, issued a statement saying that that the attack had targeted Prime Minister Omar al-Hasi and his colleagues.
It went on to accuse "agents of the former regime and counterrevolutionary forces" of perpetrating the attack.
"The bomb-laden car used at the beginning of the attack was the same one used by the gunmen who attacked the Algerian embassy and the UN office in Tripoli a few days ago," the Tobruk-based government said in its statement.
The explosion damaged the 22nd floor of the hotel, the building's façade, and cars parked nearby, the government said.
PM al-Hasi and his colleagues, it added, were all "in good health," while their new accommodations in Tripoli "have been secured."
A hotel official told AA that "the bodies of the four suicide bombers were found – some of them in parts and others intact but mangled – on the 21st floor, where they detonated their explosives, according to the security teams that had surrounded them."
Earlier Tuesday, security forces rescued 12 foreign nationals – who, it was feared, had been taken hostage – from the hotel's 21st floor.
"The hotel is now empty," the official said.
Unidentified militants had stormed the hotel earlier Tuesday amid heavy gunfire.
A source had told AA at the time that the militants had ascended to the 21st floor, which houses foreign diplomats and the employees of foreign companies.
A car bomb exploded outside the hotel earlier the same day in an attack later claimed by a group linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Libya has remained in a state of political turmoil since the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Over the past year, the conflict has evolved into a violent power struggle between two rival seats of government.
Vying for legislative authority are an internationally-recognized House of Representatives, which convenes in Tobruk, and the Islamist-led General National Congress, which – even though its mandate ended last year – continues to convene in Tripoli.
The two assemblies back two rival governments respectively headquartered in Tobruk and Tripoli.
While the House of Representatives is supported by much of the Libyan army and troops loyal to former army chief Khalifa Haftar, the General National Congress is backed by Islamist militias that helped topple Gaddafi in 2011.
