Gunmen Abduct Jordan Ambassador in Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya — Masked gunmen seized the Jordanian ambassador in the Libyan capital on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a wave of abductions and kidnappings that have swept Libya underscoring the lawlessness in the North African nation since the 2011 overthrow of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

According to the spokesman of the Libyan Foreign Ministry, several masked gunmen in civilian clothes and in two cars opened fire at Ambassador Fawaz al-Etan's vehicle early Tuesday morning in Tripoli.

The assailants wounded the Jordanian ambassador's driver and forced al-Etan out at gunpoint, said the spokesman, Said al-Aswad.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sabah al-Rafie confirmed the kidnapping but had no further details. She said the Jordanian government was following the matter closely with the Libyan authorities.

The motives behind the abduction were not clear and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abductions have been rife in Libya since Gadhafi's ouster, and officials, diplomats and journalists are frequently subjected to kidnappings, threats and attacks.

In January, gunmen briefly kidnapped six Egyptian diplomats and embassy employees following the arrest of a Libyan militia leader in Egypt. The diplomats were released only after Egypt released the detained militia commander.

Most of the abductions, though, have targeted Libyan officials and their family members.

On Sunday, Libya's interim prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, declined a parliamentary mandate to form a new government, saying he would step down instead after a new premier is named.

Al-Thinni said his action was prompted by a recent attack against him that, in his words, endangered the lives of the residents in his neighborhood. Details of the attack were not revealed but al-Thinni, who was the country's former defense minister, said he did not want to be the cause of any fighting or bloodshed because of his position.

Al-Thinni's son was kidnapped and held by a militia for four months until his release in January.

And last year, former Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan was briefly abducted from his five-star hotel in central Tripoli by an Islamic militia group before he was released by another rival armed group.

Also, the current powerful head of the Libyan Parliament, Nouri Abu Sahmein, appeared last month in leaked video in which he is seen was begging with an Islamic militia commander, trying to explain why he was caught with two women in his residence and insisting nothing scandalous was going on.

The incidents reflect the weakness of Libyan politicians and officials in the face of powerful militias that have become both the enforcers of the law and the fuel of lawlessness after successive governments depended on them to restore order in the absence of a strong police force or military.

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