Libya's news agency: Abducted prime minister has been freed

photo Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan speaks during a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department in Washington in this March 13, 2013 file photo. A government official says Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was kidnapped by gunmen early Thursday morning Oct. 10, 2013 from a hotel in Tripoli where he resides.

TRIPOLI, LIbya - Libya's state news agency says Prime Minister Ali Zidan, abducted by gunmen at dawn, has now been freed.

Government Spokesman Mohammed Kaabar told the agency, LANA, that Zidan has been "set free" and was on his way to his office on Thursday.

The brief report gave no further information. Details were sketchy but it appeared Libyan forces had intervened in some way and that the abductors did not free Zidan voluntarily.

Hours earlier, Zidan was snatched by gunmen before dawn from a Tripoli hotel where he resides.

The abduction appeared to be in retaliation for the U.S. special forces' raid over the weekend that seized a Libyan al-Qaida suspect from the streets of the capital.

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