Mayor of Libya capital abducted by gunmen: Municipality

By Waleed Abdullah

TRIPOLI, Libya (AA) - Tripoli’s municipal council suspended work Thursday to protest the abduction of the city’s mayor, Abdul-Raouf Beit al-Mal, by unknown perpetrators, according to a council statement.

The mayor, the statement explained, had been abducted by unknown perpetrators who broke into his home in the city’s Khallet al-Furjan district and taken him to an unknown location.

The municipality called on Libya’s Tripoli-based UN-backed unity government to take “all necessary measures” to secure the mayor’s release.

No group has claimed responsibility for al-Mal’s abduction.

Libya has remained in disarray since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of President Muammar Gaddafi after more than four decades in power.

Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of power -- one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli -- along with a host of heavily-armed militia groups.