By Libya Herald reporters.
Tobruk, Benghazi and Tripoli, 26 May 2015:
Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni appeared to have escaped an assassination bid this . . .[restrict]afternoon when his car was attacked by gunmen in Tobruk.
His vehicle was leaving the Dar Al-Salam Hotel, the current administrative home of the House of Representatives (HoR), when the attackers struck. The car was hit by a hail of bullets. At least one of his bodyguards was wounded (some reports say three) but the prime minister himself escaped injury.
“Thank God we managed to escape,” Thinni told the Saudi TV news channel Al-Arabiya this evening.
The strike on the prime minister’s car came after he left a session of the HoR which had been disrupted by a crowd of demonstrators outside who said they were opposed to his government and called for his resignation. A car had been burnt as part of the protest. At that point the HoR sitting was suspended when shots were fired and a number of the protestors managed to break into the building.
Thinni is understood to have been advised by the HOR president Ageela Salah to leave for his own safety. It was as he drove away from the building that the prime minister’s car was attacked by a group of gunmen.
Awalan TV, however, reported that Thinni, who had been reporting to parliament on his administration, had been thrown out of the HoR by some of the members. This allegation has caused a furious rebuttal on the government’s social media page. There it was claimed that reporting of the events had been slanted by the TV station’s management. It is also alleged that the anti-Thinni protest had been mounted and coordinated by vested interests.
It is understood that Thinni has stayed in Tobruk this evening and said that he intends to return to parliament tomorrow when he will continue to answer questions about his government’s record.
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