Armed Group Seizes 10 Staff at Tunisian Consulate in Libya’s Tripoli

Tunisia’s foreign ministry said on Friday Libyan militiamen stormed the Tunisian consulate in Tripoli and took 10 employees hostage, the AP reported.

The ministry said in a statement it denounced the intrusion of an armed group in the offices of consulate and the detention of 10 staff of the mission. The ministry didn’t identify the armed group.

The attack is the fourth against a diplomatic mission in the Libyan capital this year.

Tunisia is one of the few countries that still has a diplomatic mission in Libya. Tripoli is under the control of a group that has set up its own government, a rival to Libya's internationally recognized leaders.

Islamic State militants have exploited a political chaos and security vacuum in Libya over the past year, using a stalemate between the country's two rival governments to exert its control. A number of Islamist militias, remnants of Libya's 2011 war, have allied themselves with the group.

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