Jordan’s ambassador to Libya kidnapped

 Jordan's ambassador to Libya was kidnapped in Tripoli on Tuesday by masked gunmen who attacked his car and shot his driver, Libya's Foreign Ministry said, the latest assault on a foreign official as Libya struggles to establish the rule of law.

The driver survived the attack and was in hospital, Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Laswad said, adding that the ministry had not received any demands from the abductors.

In another incident in the Libyan capital, The US embassy said a female Libyan security guard stationed at the mission had gone missing and was "likely" kidnapped.

"Local employed security guard likely abducted late last night," Joe Mellott, the mission's spokesman, was quoted by AFP as saying in a statement.

Masked men in civilian clothes driving a BMW and a pick-up vehicle surrounded the ambassador's car, immediately opening fire.

The men, who spoke the Libyan dialect, according to the Libyan Foreign Ministry, then forced Aitan into one of their vehicles and drove away at high speed.

The kidnappers called Aitan's wife and told her he was in good health, sources told Al Jazeera's Arabic channel.

The Libyan government has not discussed who it thinks may be behind the attack.

The abduction is the latest incident in which Libyan leaders and foreign diplomats have been targeted in the increasingly lawless North African country, three years after NATO-backed rebels ousted autocratic leader Muammer Gaddafi.

The government in Amman confirmed the kidnapping.

"Jordan has initial information that the Jordanian ambassador in Libya, Fawaz Aytan, was kidnapped," foreign ministry spokeswoman Sabah Rafie said, adding that it was investigating.

The abduction comes two days after Libya's prime minister Abdullah al-Thani stepped down, saying he and his family had been the victims of a "traitorous" armed attack the previous day.

Earlier this year, five Egyptian diplomats, the secretary of Tunisia's ambassador to Libya and a South Korean trade official were abducted.

Aitan had been based in Libya since the establishment of the National Transitional Council, and was among the first Arab ambassadors to be assigned to Libya after the revolution.

He previously worked for the Jordanian embassy in Morocco as a diplomat.