WORLD
Abducted Egyptian diplomats freed in Libya
Baku, January 27 (AZERTAC). Two Egyptian diplomats and an embassy staff member abducted in Libya have been freed after Cairo released a Libyan militia leader who was arrested last week.
The releases took place late on Sunday, according to an Egyptian security official. Three Egyptian diplomats still held captive were also expected to be released soon, he said.
The six Egyptians – five diplomats and the one embassy staff member – were seized late on Friday and early on Saturday in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. No one claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
The abductions came hours after Libya's state news agency reported that the Egyptian authorities had arrested Shaaban Hadiya, the commander of a militia known as Revolutionaries Operation Room. The militia claims to answer to the Libyan army but is widely seen as operating independently.
Last year, the Libyan government blamed the group for the abduction of the Prime Minister, Ali Zidan, who was briefly kidnapped by gunmen in Tripoli.
The three released Egyptians were now back at their homes in Tripoli, said the Libyan interior ministry spokesman Said al-Asswad. The Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelattie attributed their release to official and "unofficial" mediation. He did not elaborate.
On Saturday a militia spokesman, Adel al-Ghiryani, said the group's commander had travelled to Egypt for medical reasons and that he had no idea why Hadiya, also known as Abu Ubeida al-Libi, had been detained. He also denied that his group was involved in the kidnapping of the Egyptian diplomats.
Kidnappings are common in Libya, where the overthrow of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 left a security vacuum.