Egyptians were kidnapped in retaliation for militia chief`s arrest: Libya

Tripoli: Five Egyptian embassy staff kidnapped in Tripoli were abducted in retaliation for the arrest of a Libyan militia commander by Egyptian authorities, the Libyan government said on Saturday.

Four diplomatic staff were snatched in Tripoli on Saturday, including the cultural attaché, and gunmen kidnapped another on Friday, forcing Cairo to evacuate its embassy and Benghazi consulate as a precautionary measure. The kidnappings underlined Libya`s instability two years after Muammar Gaddafi`s fall, with heavily-armed former rebels and Islamist militants who fought in the uprising still challenging state authority. No group claimed responsibility, but the Islamist-leaning Operations Room for Libya Revolutionaries, one of the many militias that fought Gaddafi in the NATO-backed uprising, reported its commander had been arrested in Egypt. The Operations Room, a group of Islamist-leaning former rebel fighters nominally hired by the government to secure Tripoli, was accused of briefly abducting Libya`s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan in October last year. Libya`s Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said the government had made contacts with the kidnappers to free the diplomats, but he said they had been taken in tit-for-tat reaction to Cairo`s arrest of militia commander Shaban Hadia. "We condemn and reject what has happened here as a reaction," he told reporters. "Those who are detaining the Egyptian diplomats committed a huge mistake, for themselves and for Libya." The Operations Room of Libya`s Revolutionaries militia denied involvement. But it said on Friday Hadia had been arrested in Egypt, where he had been travelling with his family for medical treatment. Al Arabiya channel spoke by telephone to a man claiming to be one of the kidnappers, who said they were Libyan revolutionaries and demanded to speak immediately to the commander. "We won`t free the diplomats unless the sheikh is freed within 24 hours," he said. Egyptian state news agency MENA said one diplomat had earlier called his embassy to say he was being "treated well". Egypt`s foreign ministry spokesman told Al Arabiya that the embassy in Tripoli and the consulate in Benghazi were temporarily evacuated as a precautionary measure. He confirmed Hadia was under investigation in Egypt. "If there is no charge at the end of it then he will be released," he said. "He will be treated kindly and we expect good treatment of the Egyptians."