By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 25 January 2014:
Four more staff members from the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli have been kidnapped, following the . . .[restrict]abduction of a man understood to be the embassy’s administrative attaché last night.
Spokesman for the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Said Al-Asoud, told the Libya Herald that, at dawn this morning, the cultural attaché and three employees from the Egyptian cultural centre were taken.
The Egyptian ambassador to Libya, Hesham Abdel-Wahab, confirmed that five members of staff from the embassy had been kidnapped. He said one of the kidnapped men had telephoned the embassy and confirmed that all five abducted men, who were taken individually, were being held together and were in good health.
The rest of the diplomatic team would leave Libya today, Abdel-Wahab said, adding the the Egyptian government was sending a specially-chartered plane for their evacuation.
The kidnappings are believed to be in retaliation for the arrest in Egypt on Friday of the head of the Libyan Revolutionaries Operation Room (LROR), Shaaban Masoud Khalifa Hadia, also known as Abu Obeida Al-Zawi. “Now the Egyptian government is dealing with the situation and negotiating with Tripoli’s LROR,” Abdel-Wahab said. [/restrict]
