TRIPOLI: Fourteen Tunisian oil workers kidnapped in Libya were freed Sunday night after three days in captivity and are in good health, the Tunisian consul in country said.
Armed men seized the 14 Tunisians from a bus on Thursday as they were heading to work at an oil refinery in Zawiya, just to the west of the Libyan capital.
The consul, Taoufik Al-Guesmi, did not disclose the conditions for the release of the workers, whose abductors had demanded a man jailed in Tunisia be released from prison.
But a security source in Zawiya confirmed the news of their release, saying the hostages had been freed in an operation carried out by the town’s security forces.
The forces “stormed the place where they were being held and were able to release them without fighting, no casualties,” Thamer Mounir, head of the media section of the Zawiya security service, told AFP.
Mounir was unable to say if any arrests had taken place.
Earlier Sunday, in a video posted on social media, the kidnappers had demanded the release of a man jailed in Tunisia for drug trafficking.
The video, verified by a Tunisian source close to the case, showed the abductees identifying themselves and naming their hometowns while sitting on mattresses.
The last one then says that the people holding them want the release of Libyan Kamal Al-Lafi Al-Hijaoui, adding that he and the other abductees were “in good health.”
A Tunisian source said Hijaoui had been sentenced this month in Tunisia to 20 months in prison for drug trafficking.
Zawiya is held by armed groups, including some who are involved in people-smuggling rings or the contraband sale of fuel.
Abductions are common in Libya, which has been mired in chaos since the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising.
The kidnappings are usually carried out by armed groups which demand a ransom.
In June 2015, 10 Tunisian consular staff were abducted by a militia. They were eventually released in exchange for one of its members who was held in Tunis.
Libya’s interior ministry has set up a “crisis cell” in response to the latest abductions.
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14 Tunisian oil workers kidnapped in Libya freed: consul
14 Tunisian oil workers kidnapped in Libya freed: consul
Drone strikes blamed on Iran hit Iranian Kurdish camp in Iraq: official, exiled group
IRBIL: Drone stikes blamed on Iran hit on Tuesday a camp hosting Iranian Kurdish fighters and family members in northern Iraq, a local official and an exiled opposition group said.
Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdish region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which have repeatedly faced cross-border strikes from Iran.
A local official in the Koysinjaq district, Tareq Al-Haidari, told AFP “three Iranian drones targeted the Azadi camp, which belongs to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the district.”
One drone directly hit the camp’s hospital, wounding one person, said Haidari and a commander from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
PDKI commander Mohammed Nazif Kader told AFP “drones and missiles attacked the camp,” blaming the attack on Iran.
For decades, the Koysinjaq district, known as Koya to Kurds, has been home to the PDKI.
Iran has designated Kurdish opposition groups as terrorist organizations, and has accused them of serving Western or Israeli interests in the past.
These groups have previously fought Iranian security forces in Kurdish-majority areas along the border.
But in recent years, they have largely refrained from armed activity, although they continue to actively campaign from exile against the Islamic republic.
Last week, five groups, including the PDKI, announced a political coalition to seek the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic republic and ultimately to secure Kurdish self-determination.
Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdish region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which have repeatedly faced cross-border strikes from Iran.
A local official in the Koysinjaq district, Tareq Al-Haidari, told AFP “three Iranian drones targeted the Azadi camp, which belongs to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the district.”
One drone directly hit the camp’s hospital, wounding one person, said Haidari and a commander from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
PDKI commander Mohammed Nazif Kader told AFP “drones and missiles attacked the camp,” blaming the attack on Iran.
For decades, the Koysinjaq district, known as Koya to Kurds, has been home to the PDKI.
Iran has designated Kurdish opposition groups as terrorist organizations, and has accused them of serving Western or Israeli interests in the past.
These groups have previously fought Iranian security forces in Kurdish-majority areas along the border.
But in recent years, they have largely refrained from armed activity, although they continue to actively campaign from exile against the Islamic republic.
Last week, five groups, including the PDKI, announced a political coalition to seek the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic republic and ultimately to secure Kurdish self-determination.
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