Militants have attacked a hotel in the Libyan capital Tripoli, killing at least nine people including five foreigners, officials say.

Several gunmen stormed the Corinthia Hotel and opened fire in the reception area. A car bomb also exploded nearby.

Unconfirmed reports say some of the assailants have blown themselves up. The officials say the dead include one US and one French citizen.

The security forces say the stand-off has now been brought to an end.

The US State Department has confirmed the death of a US citizen, without giving any further details. The dead American is believed to have been a security contractor.

The deaths of the French and American citizens have been confirmed by their respective governments.

There are conflicting reports as to the total number of attackers.

Blame on IS

A Twitter account linked to Islamic State said the militant group had carried out the attack.

There has been strong evidence to suggest an IS presence in the eastern city of Derna since October, with a group there publicly declaring allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

However the command structure is still a mystery to most foreign observers.

The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says that in the past month there has been a string of incidents in western Libya, including abductions and bombings, that have been claimed by IS social media accounts.

Attack threat

A civilian who witnessed the attack said, "I suddenly heard shots and saw people running towards me, and we all escaped from the back [of the hotel] through the underground garage. The hotel did a lockdown after that", BBC reported.

Reuters said Tripoli security spokesman Essam Naas told the agency that an American and a Frenchman were among five foreigners killed. He said the other foreigners who died at the hotel were Asian but gave no nationalities.

The American who was killed was a security contractor working for Virginia-based Crucible LLC, said Alan John, an executive of the company. He said the name of the contractor was not being released at this time and gave no other details.

One hotel employee told the Associated Press news agency that the hotel was mostly empty at the time of the attack.

Meanwhile, a hotel security source told the BBC that the hotel had received a threat ‘a few days ago’ warning managers ‘to empty the building’.

Revenge attack

The Corinthia Hotel is used by foreign diplomats and government officials. The UN Support Mission in Libya (Unsmil) has hosted several workshops at the hotel.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni condemned the attack and pledged that those responsible for it would be brought to justice.

Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign affairs chief, also condemned the attack which took place as a second round of peace talks between Libya's warring factions ended in Geneva in what the UN described as a ‘positive atmosphere’.

The Twitter account linked to IS said the group had carried out the attack in revenge for the death of Abu Anas al-Liby, a Libyan jihadist who was suspected of involvement in the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998.

Liby died in a US hospital on 2 January, days before he was due to stand trial.

Libya has been hit by instability since the overthrow of long-time ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011.

Numerous militias govern their own patches of territory, with successive governments struggling to exercise control.