Friday, December 06, 2013

Tunisair Representative in South Libya Held for Several Hours

Tunisair rep in south Libya 'snatched for several hours'

TRIPOLI--Masked gunmen abducted the representative of the Tunisian national carrier in southern Libya on Friday before releasing him several hours later, a local source said.

"The Tunisair representative was abducted by masked armed men as he exited the airport in Sebha," a city in southern Libya, the source said on condition of anonymity.

"The gunmen took him to an unknown destination and several hours later they released him," the source added.

There were no immediate explanation for the abduction, and Tunisair at the carrier's main office in Tripoli declined to comment.

Libya has been in the throes of lawlessness since the 2011 uprising which toppled now slain veteran revolutionary Pan-Africanist leader Moamer Kadhafi, with foreigners often the target of unrest.

On Thursday, a young American teacher was gunned down in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the uprising, which has seen chronic attacks on local and foreign targets.

In September 2012, the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that has been blamed, like much of the violence in Libya, on Islamists.

Tunisair flies to Libya's main airport in Tripoli, as well as to airports in the western city of Misrata, Benghazi and Tobruk in the east, and to Sebha.

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