By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 27 January 2015:
The deadly attack on Tripoli’s Corinthia Hotel ended this afternoon leaving perhaps as many as 13 . . .[restrict]people dead beside the terrorists whose number is still unclear.
Initially it was being claimed that three Libyan security guards were slain in the initial assault while four foreigners, two of them women, are supposed to have been killed later.
No identities have yet been revealed but it is thought that at least one of the dead is an American and another may be French.
In the continuing confusion after the attack, it was also being reported that four other US citizens had been among a crowd of people evacuated from the hotel, some, it seems, via the underground car park. It is understood that there are at least six wounded.
At a press conference held later by Libya Dawn, an aide to antigovernment prime minister Omar Al-Hassi said that target of the attack had been his boss. Mohamed Omar Hussain said that the killers had been sent by General Khalifa Hafter in the east of the country to kill Hassi. This claim was repeated to Naba TV by Omar Khardawi of Tripoli’s Central Security.
A statement issued over Hassi’s name reiterated the claim that Hafter had ordered the terror raid. The statement went on the say that the attack was “ indicative of the success we have had in securing Tripoli and providing basic services to residents”.
Hassi had apparently been on the 22nd floor of the 299-room Corinthia when the terrorists struck.
It was originally claimed that a total of five attackers had shot their way into the hotel lobby. However some sources are now saying that there were only two terrorists.
Certainly two different young men, dressed in light-coloured clothing, one of them clearly holding a weapon, were caught by the hotel CCTV. Their pictures quickly made it to social media. But so too did a video clip of the blood-soaked body of another “terrorist”, wearing dark clothing and not resembling ether of the CCTV pair. It has likewise been said that one of the attackers has been arrested.
It appears that the attackers were finally cornered on the 24th floor. One security source claimed to the Libya Herald that one of the terrorists had killed himself and a fellow terrorist with a grenade. [/restrict]
