TRIPOLI, Libya -- Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel Tuesday in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, killing four foreigners and five guards and triggering an hours-long standoff that ended when two assailants set off a grenade that killed them, officials said.
An affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault.
A senior State Department official confirmed the death of one U.S. citizen in Tuesday's attack on the Corinthia Hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, didn't provide further details.
The attack started in the morning hours and included a car bombing, said Essam al-Naas, a spokesman for a Tripoli security agency.
Libya's security forces responded and after several hours of a standoff, the attackers threw a grenade at the security forces, killing themselves and a security guard. Ten people also were wounded in the attack, including security guards and guests, al-Naas said.
"The operation is over," al-Naas said but added that the streets around Corinthia remained closed. He said an investigation was underway.
Earlier in the day, Mahmoud Hamza, commander of the so-called Special Deterrent Force, told private satellite television station al-Nabaa that five foreigners were killed, without elaborating, but al-Naas later revised the casualty toll.
It was not clear whether the two assailants were the only ones involved in the attack.
As the standoff developed, a security official said the gunmen had taken captives, though he had no further details. Two commercial landmark towers behind the hotel were evacuated out of security concerns, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Since the ouster of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has been torn among competing militias and tribes vying for power. The post-Gadhafi transition has collapsed, with two rival governments and parliaments -- each backed by different militias -- effectively ruling in the country's eastern and western regions.
The militia-backed government in Tripoli said the target of the attack was Prime Minister Omar al-Hassi. Spokesman Amr Baiou said al-Hassi was unharmed.
Libya's elected parliament, which has been forced to relocate to Tobruk, had no immediate statement in response to the hotel attack.
A group calling itself the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State, the extremist group that has seized territory in Syria and Iraq, issued a statement on social media claiming responsibility for the attack just as it was beginning.
The group portrayed the assault as retaliation for the abduction last year by U.S. commandos of a Libyan al-Qaida operative, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, also known as Abu Anas al-Libi.
Speaking on Libyan television, Omar Khadrawi, a security official for the Tripoli government, denied that the attack was perpetrated by the Islamic State. He blamed "elements of the old regime," accusing them of "tampering with the security situation that Tripoli is blessed with."
Reports about the attack itself were conflicting, and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.
A hotel staff member initially said five masked gunmen stormed the Corinthia after security guards at the hotel's gate tried to stop them. He said the assailants entered the hotel and fired randomly at the staff in the lobby.
The staff member said the gunmen fired in his direction when he opened his door to look out. He said he joined the rest of the staff and foreign guests fleeing out the hotel's back doors into the parking lot.
When they got there, the staff member said, a car bomb exploded in the parking lot 100 yards away. He said that happened after a protection force entered the lobby and opened fire on the attackers. He said two guards were immediately killed. The staff member spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared being targeted later by militants.
The car bomb left at least five cars in the parking lot burned and damaged some windows in the hotel's facade, he said.
The hotel had Italian, British and Turkish guests but was largely empty at the time of the attack, the staff member added. He said al-Hassi usually resides at the hotel, but was not there Tuesday. Al-Hassi's security guards also weren't there, he said.
The hotel also was attacked in 2013 when a former prime minister was abducted there.
The Malta-owned hotel also is where the United Nations support mission in Libya holds its meetings. The mission is currently hosting political talks with rival Libyan groups in Geneva, trying to resolve the country's political and security crisis.
Information for this article was contributed by Esam Mohamed of The Associated Press and by Suliman Ali Zway and David D. Kirkpatrick of The New York Times.
A Section on 01/28/2015