Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan has appeared in public for the first time since his release after being abducted by gunmen from his hotel earlier in the day.

Zidan was shown on a Libyan TV arriving at his Cabinet office. He is expected to address the nation later on Thursday to explain what had happened.

He was taken by gunmen at dawn from the hotel where he resides in the capital, Tripoli.

The brazen abduction — apparently in retaliation for the U.S. special forces’ raid over the weekend that seized a Libyan al-Qaida suspect from the streets of Tripoli — reflected the deep chaos and lawlessness gripping Libya.

(AP)