METransparent Exclusive
What happened in Libya last Thursay? Who kidnapped Libya’s prime minister, Mr. Ali Zeidan, and why?
Exclusive sources in Tripoli informed Middle East Transparent of the details of the aborted putsch, details which Mr. Zeidan preferred not to unveil in his press conference tonight. Mr. Zeidan lashed out tonight, Friday, against militias that have fueled his country’s turmoil, warning that some armed group are trying to “terrorize” the government and turn the North African nation into another “Afghanistan or Somalia”, but shied away from naming names.
Sources in Tripoli told Middle East Transparent that the kidnapping of Mr. Zeidan was undertaken by an armed group loyal to an ex member of al-Qaida and, presently, a member of Libya’s National Council, Mr. Abdel Wahab Mohamed bin Qaid. Mr. bin Qaid was elected as representative of the Mirzak region in south Libya and has created a parliamentary bloc, composed of ‘unaffiliated’ members, mostly of Salafi orientation. The bloc is called ‘the fidelity to the martyrs bloc’.
Mr. bin Qaid (50 years) is the eldest brother of the famous Abu Yahia al-Libi, the al-Qaida deputy commander who was killed by a US drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt in June 2012.
Mr. bin Qaid himself had fought in Afghanistan, then in Libya against the Qaddafi regime where he was captured and put in jail. He owes his early liberation to Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, long before Libya’s revolution.
But, coming back to Mr. Zeidan’s kidnapping, METransparent learned that, about ten days previous to the aborted putsch, and under pressure from “the fidelity to the martyrs bloc” headed by Mr. bin Qaid, the head of Libya’s National Council, Mr. Nouri Abu Sahmein, affiliated to the MB, agreed to allocate a 100 million libyan dinar budget to the so-called ‘rebels security chamber’. This was the group that, first, assumed responsibility for the kidnapping of Mr. Zeidan, then back-tracked after Mr. Zeidan’s liberation and denied any involvement.
Sources said that Mr. Zeidan was kidnapped by a military force composed of a 100 armed vehicles. The intention of the putschists was to assassinate Libya’s prime minister. Mr. Zeidan owes his safety to the intervention a rival armed groups which discovered Mr. Zeidan’s whereabouts and liberated him by force.
Sources told METransparent that Mr. Ali Zeidan had been, for months, under intense pressure from both the Muslim Brotherhood bloc and from Mr. bin Qaid’s bloc to render his resignation. Having failed either to terrorize Mr. Zeidan to resign or to attain the parliamentary majority required to topple his government, the putschists took to military means: kidnapping Mr. Zeidan and assassinating him, as happened to Libya’s ex ministrer of Interior, general Abdul Fattah Younes during the revolution.
Sources speculated about the present whereabouts of the 100-vehicles armed group. Where did it hide after the failure of its badly-prepared putsch? And, is it hiding in preparation for a new attempt to topple Libya’s elected government.
Lastly, sources told METransparent that the putschists were seeking the establishment of an ‘Islamic Emirate’ in Libya. As for the Muslim Brotherhood, it was hoping the putschists would get rid of Libya’s present prime minister on their own. The MB was abiding its moment, as usual.