Egyptian embassy staff kidnapped in Libya

Four Egyptian embassy staff, including a cultural attache, were kidnapped Saturday in Libya's capital Tripoli, the Libyan foreign ministry said.

It came on the heels of the abduction of another Egyptian diplomat in Tripoli on Friday night.

"The cultural attache and three other embassy staff of the Egyptian embassy in Libya have been kidnapped in Tripoli in the early hours of Saturday," Libyan foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Al Aswad told Xinhua.

On Friday night, unknown gunmen kidnapped an Egyptian administrative attache in Tripoli.

The abductions came hours after the leader of the Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, a major militia group, Shaban Hadia, was arrested in Egypt after police forces raided his home in the coastal city of Alexandria.

 

The Islamist militia group contributed to the toppling of former Libyan leader Muamaar Gaddafi during the uprising in 2011.