Cairo/Valetta - At least eight people were killed Tuesday by gunmen who stormed a high-profile hotel in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The Tripoli-based national government - Libya has two governments and the one in Tripoli is not internationally recognized - reported that four guards and four foreign hotel staff, whose nationalities could not be immediately ascertained, were killed at the Corinthia hotel.
Official news agency Lana earlier reported that the hotel was hit by a car bomb, following which three armed men stormed it.
Local news site al-Wasat quoted a Tripoli security official as saying that four attackers had blown themselves up after being surrounded by security forces on the 21st floor.
A spokesman for the Malta-based Corinthia Group earlier said all guests were safe and denied any hostage situation. He said attackers were holed up in one of the top floors of the hotel and occasional gunfire could be heard.
Tripoli accused supporters of the internationally recognized government based in eastern Libya of being behind the attack.
In a statement carried by Lana, it said it was an attempt to assassinate its prime minister, Omar al-Hassi, who reportedly resides in the hotel.
But the attack was also claimed online by supporters of the Islamic State extremist group, US-based SITE monitoring group reported.
In a Twitter post, SITE quoted the Islamic State offshoot in Libya as saying it was an act of vengeance in connection with a Libyan man suspected of plotting al-Qaeda's 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa.
Abu Anas al-Libi, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, died in a New York hospital this month, just days before his trial.
The Corinthia is popular among diplomats who travel to Tripoli for meetings with members of al-Hassi's government, which was installed by militias from the powerful city of Misrata and their Islamist allies.
The internationally recognized government is based in the eastern cities of Tobruk and al-Beida.
The hotel had made headlines in late 2013, when gunmen stormed it and seized then prime minister Ali Zeidan from it. He was released shortly afterwards.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini condemned the attack as “another reprehensible act of terrorism which deals a blow to efforts to bring peace and stability to Libya.”
“Such attacks should not be allowed to undermine the political process,” Mogherini added.
Forces linked to Libya's rival administrations have clashed repeatedly in recent months. A second round of UN-brokered talks on ending the civil war concluded Tuesday in Geneva.
The United Nations said the talks “were conducted in a positive atmosphere” and that “the dialogue was elaborate and constructive.”
While the Tobruk government and other representatives from the Islamist-Misrata alliance met in Geneva, the Tripoli-based parliament, the General National Congress, has so far stayed away.
The peace talks are to continue in Geneva on a different track on Wednesday, with representatives of town and city councils from across Libya.
The North African country has suffered from persistent instability since the 2011 overthrow of former leader Moamer Gaddafi.
Successive governments have failed to rein in the plethora of revolutionary militias that sprung up during the revolt against Gaddafi.
Over the past year, the militias have increasingly linked up with one or other of the two main factions, bringing the country closer to a two-way civil war.
Sapa-dpa