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Report: Alleged Libya rape victim arrives in US

A Libyan woman who burst into the Tripoli hotel where international journalists are based and claimed she had been gang-raped by Moammar Gadhafi's forces has arrived in the U.S., according to a report Friday.
Image: A Libyan woman reacts as she is grabbed by a Libyan official preventing members of the foreign media from reaching her, at a hotel in Tripoli
A Libyan woman, Iman al-Obeidi, is grabbed by a Libyan official preventing members of the foreign media from reaching her at a hotel in Tripoli after she made a desperate plea for help.ZOHRA BENSEMRA / Reuters file
/ Source: msnbc.com staff and news service reports

A Libyan woman who burst into the Tripoli hotel where international journalists are based and claimed she had been gang-raped by Moammar Gadhafi's forces has arrived in the U.S., according to a report Friday.

Iman al-Obeidi's arrival at the hotel in March set off a brawl as journalists tried unsuccessfully to stop government minders and hotel staff from taking her away.

She was eventually released and left Libya, escaping across the border to Tunisia in disguise.

that Obeidi had spent 54 days in a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees facility in Romania, but arrived in New York Wednesday night.

She then caught a flight to the place where she plans to live, the broadcaster said.

Obeidi, who was granted asylum in the U.S., told CNN she was excited and happy to be in the country, thanking the government and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

CNN said she had a brief conversation with a CNN producer, saying she was not ready to speak to the media in more detail.

After the incident at the hotel, a Libyan government spokesman initially said she was drunk and seemed to have mental problems, but subsequently retreated from that claim.