Libya PM Abdullah al-Thinni escapes assassination attempt outside parliament

Libya’s Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni has escaped an assassination attempt in the eastern city of Tobruk, a spokesman for his internationally recognised government says.

The prime minister’s car was hit by bullets when armed men opened fire as it was leaving an area where a session of parliament was held.

The prime minister was not hurt, but one of his bodyguards was wounded.

The incident highlights the unravelling of state authority in the North African country in which two governments and parliaments allied to armed factions are fighting for control, four years after rebels overthrew and killed leader Moamar Gaddafi.

Before the incident, parliament speaker Aqila Saleh had asked Mr Thinni to leave the assembly for his safety after protesters opposed to his government gathered outside the naval base where the parliament meets.

Mr Thinni has faced increasing criticism for running an ineffective rump state in the east since losing the capital Tripoli in the west to a rival faction that now controls ministries and key state bodies based there.

The parliament he leads in the country’s east has struggled to stamp its authority over an increasingly fragmented country, and is being challenged by a Tripoli-based assembly known as General National Congress, set up after a rival faction seized the capital in August.

Mr Thinni’s government had originally planned to set up parliament in the main eastern city of Benghazi but relocated to Tobruk near the Egyptian border after Benghazi turned into a battleground between the government and Islamist militants.

The parliament initially opened in a Tobruk hotel but moved to the naval base after a suicide bomber detonated a car in front of the hotel in December.