A group of Islamic State (IS) affiliates attacked Libya's biggest hotel in Tripoli Tuesday, killing at least eight and injuring several others before blowing themselves up, according to security sources.
The attackers set off a booby-trapped car bomb around 10 a.m. and then stormed into the Corinthia Hotel.
After a nearly four-hour crossfire and standoff with the security forces, two of the gunmen blew themselves up on the 21st floor of the hotel, Xinhua news agency reported citing the security sources.
The official LANA agency said one of gunmen was taken alive by the police.
At least eight people, including five foreigners and three hotel guards, died during the attack, according to the al-Nabaa TV. Their nationalities were not immediately known.
According to an earlier report, some witnesses said the bomb detonated at the hotel's parking lot shook the whole central area of the city. Then two men firing guns dashed into the hotel building. Nearby office buildings were evacuated after the explosion.
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A large number of security personnel were at the scene. A security source told Xinhua that the gunmen took some "important figures" hostage inside the hotel, making it a standoff.
The IS offshoot in Libya, "Tripoli Province", claimed responsibility for the attack on its official social media website, calling it the "Battle of Sheikh Abu Anas al-Libi." It said the reason for the explosion is that the hotel contained "non-Muslim diplomatic missions and security companies".
Al-Libi was an alleged Al-Qaida operative who was captured by US special forces in Libya, and died this month in a US hospital.
Corinthia, one of the last operational hotels in Tripoli, once hosted many government branches, foreign embassies and staff of media and foreign enterprises.
Libya's former prime minister Ali Zeidan was abducted by gunmen from the hotel in 2013 and later released.
Tripoli fell into the hands of the armed Islamist coalition Libya Dawn last August, when the internationally recognised Libyan government retreated to the eastern town of Tobruk.
The city has been plagued by bomb attacks, assassinations and kidnappings.
Several embassies, including those of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, have been targeted by militants in similar bomb attacks.