5 masked attackers wearing bulletproof vests stormed a luxury Libyan hotel popular with foreigners Tuesday after killing at least three hotel guards who tried to stop them and injuring 12 people, they also exploded a car bomb in the hotel parking lot.
Protection force opened fire on the attackers, battle with the gun gunmen continued Tuesday morning at Tripoli’s Corinthia Hotel, the most prominent hotel in the Libyan capital.
An witness said the gunmen fired in his direction when he opened his door to look out. He said he joined the staff and foreign guests fleeing out the hotel’s back doors into the parking lot.the hotel had Italian, British and Turkish guests, but that it was largely empty at the time of the attack.
2 Filipino women were wounded by smashed window glass.
Tripoli has been hit with a series of car bombs and shootings in the turmoil that has engulfed the country following its 2011 civil war, which ousted long time Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Two governments and two parliaments are vying for legitimacy in the country from Tripoli and Benghazi in the east.
Tripoli is currently controlled by a group called Libya Dawn, which seized the capital in August by
expelling a rival force.
