A Libyan affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Tripoli luxury hotel that killed 10 people, including an American and four Europeans.
The group, calling itself "Islamic State in Tripoli Province," said it launched the attack Tuesday to avenge the death of Abu Anas al-Libi, who was snatched off a Tripoli street by US special forces in 2013 and died in US custody earlier this month due to complications from liver surgery. Al-Libi had been indicted in US federal court over his alleged role in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The group identified the attackers as Abu Ibrahim al-Tunsi and Abu Suleiman al-Sudani, noms de guerre that suggest the attackers were Tunisian and Sudanese.
"The operation is not the last one on the lands of Tripoli... Let the enemies of God, the crusaders and their allies await what would harm them," the message read.
In addition to the foreigners, five guards were killed in the attack Tuesday on the seaside Corinthia Hotel. Two attackers were killed following an hours-long stand-off that included a car bombing.
A senior US State Department official confirmed that an American citizen was among those killed. Cliff Taylor, the CEO of a Virginia security company, Crucible LLC, identified the slain American as David Berry, a contractor with his company.
The online message said that those killed were American, French, South Korean and Filipino. Earlier, Essam al-Naasa, a spokesman for a Tripoli security agency, said the dead included an American, a French citizen and three others from the former Soviet Union.
Since the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi the country has been awash in armed militias, including several Islamic extremist groups.
