The Prime Minister of Libya Ali Zeidan has returned to his office after being captured for several hours by militiamen loosely allied to the government.

CEOAFRICA gathered that the Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room said it had captured Mr Zeidan in Tripoli, claiming it was acting on orders from the prosecutor general.

The Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (LROR) is one of many "semi-official" armed groups which control much of Libya in the absence of a regular police and army. The group has been endorsed in the past by the speaker of Libya's parliament, Nuri Abu Sahmayn.

Its mode of operation is to raid and arrest those accused of financial impropriety or who have links with Col Gaddafi's government. But the kidnapping of the prime minister is by far its most high-profile operation.

The group was among two named by the prime minister's website as being responsible for seizing Zeidan. The other was the Anti-Crime Unit, which is affiliated with the ministry of the interior. It is not clear yet which group led the operation. But LROR has been the most active in getting its message across, through its Facebook page.

It says the arrest had nothing to do with the US capture of terror suspect Abu-Anas al-Liby on Saturday, saying that Zeidan had to answer for financial misdemeanours.  It however condemned the US raid as a criminal act.