Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan freed from abductors A still image aired by broadcaster Al Arabiya shows Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan surrounded by men at an unidentified location Libya's prime minister was freed from the clutches of militiamen on Thursday several hours after he was detained and whisked away from his residence, sparking panicked attempts to locate him. Ali Zeidan had been freed from his abductors, was in good health and was on his way to his Tripoli office, a spokesman for his government, Mohamed Yahya Kabr, was quoted as a saying by the official Libyan news agency. "This kidnapping will not affect the legitimacy of the Libyan state and its institutions," said a statement issued by Sedigh Abdul Kareem, the deputy prime minister. They will all stand together against these acts. Details of the kidnapping and release of Mr Zeidan, the highest ranking official in the country, underscore continuing security woes exacerbated by multitude of armed gangs posing as heirs to the uprising that toppled the previous government two years ago and acting as self-declared authorities. Tripoli residents said Mr Zeidan was freed after armed locals of the Fornaj neighbourhood where he was being held surrounded the militia's compound and demanded his release. Mr Kabr confirmed that Mr Zeidan was "freed, not released" from his captivity. Mr Zeidan's abductors were apparently prompted by the capture by US commandos of an al-Qaeda militant in the country's capital, Tripoli on Saturday, a move that enraged Libyans as a violation of the country's sovereignty and prompted accusations the government was collaborating too closely with Washington. A mysterious group of men whisked Mr Zeidan away from the five-star, high-security Corinthia hotel and residential compound in central Tripoli at dawn. Dubai-based Al Arabiya television broadcast images of the normally dapper Mr Zeidan, apparently taken during his abduction, wearing sleeping clothes and frowning while surrounded by men pressed around him. "Mr Zeidan, head of the interim government was taken at dawn to an unknown destination for unknown reasons by a group believed to be revolutionaries," said a statement on the prime minister's website. "Revolutionaries" refers to the armed militiamen who fought against the former Gaddafi government and now hold sway over the streets. A spokesman for an "anti-crime agency" was later quoted by the official WAL news agency as saying Mr Zeidan had been arrested on a warrant issued by the agency and another group, the Libyan Revolutionaries Operations Group, though the justice minister had denied any such order had been issued. Mr Abdul-Hakim al-Balazi, spokesman for the group, said Mr Zeidan was in good health and in the custody of the agency and the operations room. Officials scrambled to win Mr Zeidan's release. State television reported that Nouri Abusahmain, president of the country's 200-member legislature, was in negotiations with the armed group. This kidnapping will not affect the legitimacy of the Libyan state and its institutions. They will all stand together against these acts Sedigh Abdul Kareem, deputy prime minister The operations room claimed on its Facebook page that Mr Zeidan had been "arrested" for taking actions "harmful to the state" in violation of the law but stopped short of claiming they held him. Mr Zeidan, a bespectacled former diplomat and human rights activist, had been under fire by many political quarters for his alleged acquiescence to the October 5 capture of alleged al-Qaeda operative Nazih al-Raghai, who also goes by the alias Abu Anas al-Liby, outside his southern Tripoli home. Many Libyans condemned the US operation on Saturday as a breach of the nation's sovereignty. In the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday angry demonstrations erupted against Mr Liby's capture. The General National Congress, the country's elected legislature, had vowed to summon top officials for questioning. The justice minister, Salah Merghani, had called the operation "illegal" and warned that Libya might take the US to the International Criminal Court over the issue. Mr Zeidan has been struggling to condemn the abduction without damaging relations with the US. Mr Liby, now in detention on a US military ship, is a veteran of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a decades-old organisation with a history of ties to both western military and intelligence organisations and global Islamic militants. The LIFG made common cause with the US when it was waging guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the late 1980s and later fought against Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi in the 1990s, collaborating occasionally with British intelligence. But Mr Liby was also accused of taking part in the al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. In 2011, many LIFG fighters were at the front lines of the Nato-backed war to unseat Gaddafi and later became a key pillar of the transitional administrations overseeing Libya's affairs as it struggles to write a new constitution and create a permanent government. Many former LIFG fighters have joined the country's formal security institutions, including the Supreme Security Committee, a parallel force made up almost entirely of former militiamen.