The Prime Minister of Libya returned to his office and went back to work, after being kidnapped and held for hours by militiamen linked to his government.  The episode lays bare the lawlessness and tribalism that has gripped Libya in the wake of former dictator Moammar Ghaddafi’s ouster and killing.

PM Ali Zeidan called his cabinet and thanked the “real revolutionaries” who took part in the operation to free him.

What happened and why are unclear.  It began before dawn, when gunmen believed to be members of a militia called “Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries” raided the hotel where Zeidan lives, and whisked him into captivity in a Tripoli suburb.  It later issued a statement saying the operation was acting on a Justice Ministry arrest order, because of the government’s alleged cooperation with the US operation that captured an al Qaeda terrorist in Tripoli over the weekend.  The US claimed it had the government’s tacit approval, the government denies it.

Two more militias confronted the kidnappers and freed Zeidan without a fight, collected his belonging from the hotel, and took the PM back to the capital. 

And because it’s s social media world, Zeidan tweeted, “If the purpose of my kidnapping is to get me to resign, I won’t resign. We are taking slow, but steady steps on the right path.”

Libya’s government is dangerously weak, and unable to control the militias that have assumed day-to-day security operations, and have largely filled the power void left by the overthrow of Ghaddafi in 2011.