The U.S. military said Monday it hopes to train 5,000 to 8,000 Libyan army troops as Tripoli struggles to contain violence from heavily armed militias.

The training, requested by Libya's prime minister, would be carried out by the military's Africa Command at a base in Bulgaria, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters.

EU foreign ministers on Monday expressed concern over the "significant deterioration" in Libya as troops deployed and militias were ordered out of the capital following deadly clashes.

"The EU is concerned by the significant deterioration of both the political and security situation in Libya and condemns the violence in Tripoli on 15 November," the European Union ministers said in a joint statement.

Libya's deputy intelligence chief Mustafa Nuh was freed by his abductors on Monday a day after they seized him near Tripoli airport, a source in the intelligence services said.

"Nuh was freed today," the source said on condition of anonymity, without giving further details.

The military governor of Libya's restive Benghazi on Monday escaped an assassination attempt that killed a member of his entourage and seriously wounded another, a security official told Agence France Presse.

"The motorcade of Colonel Abdallah al-Saati, head of the joint security room and military governor of Benghazi, was attacked as he passed through the Al-Hadeq area, leaving one dead and one seriously wounded from his entourage," said security forces spokesman Colonel Abdallah al-Zaidi.

Leaders from the Libyan port of Misrata have urged militias from the city to leave Tripoli within 72 hours, after they were involved in deadly weekend clashes in the capital.

A militia of former rebels from Misrata who fought the regime of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 opened fire on protesters in Tripoli, sparking unrest that killed at least 43 people.

Libya's deputy intelligence chief Mustafa Nuh was abducted Sunday in Tripoli, a security official told Agence France Presse, as tensions ran high in the capital following deadly violence over the weekend.

"The vice president of intelligence was abducted shortly after his arrival in Tripoli from a trip abroad," said the official, who declined to be identified.

Tripoli began a three-day strike Sunday to mourn dozens killed in clashes at an anti-militia protest over the weekend, the deadliest violence in the Libyan capital since the 2011 uprising.

The weak central government has struggled to rein in former rebel brigades who helped end Moammar Gadhafi's 40-year dictatorship but have since grown into increasingly menacing militias.

Fresh clashes erupted in Tripoli on Saturday, officials and witnesses said, as the death toll from an anti-militia protest in Libya's capital rose above 40 and the government appealed for restraint.

More than 400 people were also wounded when Friday's protest degenerated into armed clashes in the capital that continued through the night, Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said.

Berber protesters have ended their occupation of a gas terminal in western Libya that prompted the shutdown of an export pipeline to Italy, Libya's National Oil Company said on Saturday.

The protesters called off their more than two-week sit-in at the Mellitah terminal near Zwara, west of Tripoli, late on Friday but it will take longer to reopen the pipeline, NOC spokesman Mohamed al-Harairi told Agence France Presse.

The State Department revealed Friday it has been quietly offering a $10 million reward to help track down the militants behind last year's deadly attack on a U.S. mission in Libya.

The brazen assault in Benghazi cost the lives of four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, with the fatalities and disputes about what unfolded at the diplomatic base causing fury in Washington.