The Libyan prime minister, Ali Zeidan, has returned under armed escort to the Tripoli hotel from where he was seized in the early hours of Thursday morning, following a brief but dramatic kidnapping.
Militia units who had taken charge of security outside the hotel after police fled in the morning withdrew following Zeidan's return and police units in red and white jeeps were again deployed around the entrance.

The situation at the hotel was tense with dozens of armed men from police, army and pro-Zeidan militias clustered at the entrance with machine guns and rocket launchers. Inside, guests could be seen standing around the lobby looking out as security forces deployed outside. It is still unclear who kidnapped Zeidan, with Hashim Bishar, head of the Tripoli Supreme Security Committee, the government's gendarmerie, claiming he was captured by an unidentified group and then released from his detention by Tripoli militias.

"Our revolutionaries went to the place where he was being detained and demanded he be handed over. He was handed over, now he is safe," he told a Libyan TV station. He did not say who had kidnapped Zeidan from the Corinthia.

The abduction came amid anger among Libya's powerful Islamic militant groups over the US special forces raid on Saturday that seized Libyan al-Qaida suspect known as Abu Anas al-Libi.

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