Gunmen kidnapped a Libyan deputy foreign minister from his hotel room on Sunday in the eastern city of Al-Baida where the recognized government is based, a ministry official said.

The kidnappers told staff they were members of the security forces when they entered the hotel before dawn, the official said, citing witnesses.

They drove deputy minister Hassan al-Saghir off to an unknown destination.

No group immediately claimed his abduction but Libya has been rocked by a spate of kidnappings of both foreigners and Libyans since the overthrow of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

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