Deadliest Since Benghazi: ISIS Group Attacks Libyan Hotel
Photo Credit: New York Times Militants claiming allegiance to the Islamic State said they were responsible for an armed assault on a luxury hotel that killed at least eight people here on Tuesday, the most significant in a string of terrorist attacks against Western interests and government institutions in the capital since the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi more than three years ago.
Four or five gunmen shouting “God is great” stormed the hotel, the Corinthia, in the early morning, witnesses said. The attackers fired their guns into the lobby, battling guards and indiscriminately shooting at civilians, according to witnesses, news reports and people in contact with associates inside the hotel.
Officials said at least five of those killed were foreign visitors. The State Department confirmed that an American had been killed, and witnesses said he was a former Marine working in security. The Associated Press, citing an executive at Crucible, a security company in Fredericksburg, Va., later identified the American as David Berry, a contractor with Crucible.
It was the deadliest attack on Western interests in Libya since the assault on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in 2012. It was also the bloodiest of several recent attacks by Libyans pledging loyalty to the Islamic State, raising fears that its example was further inflaming Libya’s violence.
Fighters wearing black uniforms labeled “police” and loyal to the Tripoli government — one of two rival governments now fighting for control of Libya — responded to the attack, cordoning off streets and surrounding the hotel. Their forces entered a long standoff with assailants still inside. (Read more about the ISIS attack on the Libyan hotel HERE)
Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.
