TRIPOLI: Libya’s parliament voted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan out of office on Tuesday after a tanker loaded with oil from a rebel-held port escaped the navy, officials said.

Zeidan, a liberal weakened for months by infighting with, will be temporarily replaced by Defense Minister Abdallah Al-Thinni, Parliament spokesman Omar Hmeidan told reporters.

The news deepens the turmoil in the North African country, a member of the OPEC oil producer group, where the government has struggled to impose order and rein in militias that helped oust Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority.

Deputies said they had mounted a no-confidence vote after the tanker managed to load crude at Es Sider port and escaped the navy, which earlier claimed it had seized the ship.

Zeidan had told Reuters late on Monday in an interview the navy and allied militias had halted the tanker and were escorting it to a government-controlled port in western Libya.

He had for months been facing rising opposition from Islamists and the wider public, which blamed him for Libya’s bumpy transition since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising.

The spectacular tanker escape was the tipping point. “The government has been weakened for a time and we need a new personality,” said Al-Sharif Al-Wafi, an independent lawmaker. A new prime minister will be elected by deputies within two weeks, he said.

On Saturday, Zeidan had said the navy would bomb the tanker if it tried to leave the port, one of three occupied by eastern rebels demanding a greater share of oil wealth and power.

But the ship had moved into international waters early on Tuesday morning after a brief firefight with government forces, port workers allied to the rebels and an oil official said. “We escorted the tanker out of the port at 3 a.m.,” said a rebel fighter at the harbor. “We came under fire from light arms (from the navy) but there were no casualties.”