Up to 10 foreign workers are missing after a suspected militant attack on a Libyan oilfield, and there is a possibility that they have been taken hostage, Czech and Libyan officials said on Saturday.
Foreigners have increasingly become targets amid Libya’s turmoil, where two rival governments are battling for control and Muslim extremists have increased their numbers in the chaos that followed former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s ouster four years ago.
The workers missing after the assault last week on al-Ghani field, included a Czech, an Austrian and others from Bangladesh and the Philippines, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Lubomir Zaoralek said.
“We are examining the possibility that a kidnapping has taken place,” Zaoralek told reporters.
Libya’s oil security forces on Friday said that they had retaken control of the oilfield after suspected Muslim militants attacked the facility, killing 11 guards.
Several guards were beheaded, one official said.
There had been no contact with any group claiming responsibility, Zaoralek said, adding that his ministry was certain that the Czech citizen had not been killed during the attack.
At least seven foreigners including an Austrian, a Czech, Filipinos and a national of an African nation were missing after the al-Ghani attack, Libya’s state oil company said.
“Foreigners from an Austrian oil services company, operating in the field, are still missing since the attack. We do not know their fate,” National Oil Corp spokesman Mohamed El-Hariri said.
In Vienna, an Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs spokesman said that a 39-year-old Austrian working for an oilfield management company had gone missing after an attack in Libya. He declined to give the name of the missing Austrian or his company.
Both the Czech and Austrian governments have assembled crisis groups to handle the situation. A Czech official is expected to travel to the region soon.
Western governments are backing UN negotiations to end the crisis in Libya, worried that the large North African state just across the Mediterranean from Europe is becoming a haven for Muslim militants.
Libyan militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria have been blamed for high-profile attacks this year involving foreigners, including an assault on a Tripoli hotel and the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians.
Militants this month also stormed and damaged several Libyan oilfields around al-Ghani, forcing the government to declare force majeure, evacuate workers and shut down production on 11 oilfields in the central Sirte basin.
UN-backed talks to form a unity government and a lasting ceasefire in Libya are continuing in Morocco. However, both sides face internal splits over the negotiations and fighting between the two governments continues.
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