By Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 19 January 2016:
Twenty Egyptians abducted earlier this month near Jufra have been returned to Egypt after they were . . .[restrict]freed during an army operation.
Their repatriation in a Libyan oil services plane was a high profile affair, not least because Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was on the tarmac at Cairo airport today to greet them.
The hand-over was no less promoted in Libya with the men being interviewed on board the aircraft. They said that they were grateful that they had been freed from near Zillah by a Libyan army unit. However, they gave few details of the operation or their abduction. A Libyan officer claimed that the men had been seized by a gang which had close ties to IS.
Welcoming his countrymen home, Sisi said that he was grateful to Libya and to Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief General Khalifa Hafter for securing the men’s safe release.
It is thought that the Egyptians were discovered as army units moved towards Jufra seeking to secure the area in advance of an expected terrorist push into the oilfields. [/restrict]
