Four foreign journalists have been missing in Libya for several days after being detained and taken away by Libyan troops in the country’s war-ravaged east, the Spanish national television said on Thursday.
One Spanish press photographer, one South African and two U.S. journalists are missing, the TVE1 channel said. The journalists’ car was reportedly stopped by Libyan soldiers at a highway linking the eastern rebel-controlled town of Ajdabiya to the nearby Mediterranean port of Marsa-el-Brega on Monday, the TV channel said.
The car was set on fire and the journalists taken in an unknown direction, it said. The incident was witnessed by a security guard accompanying a New York Times journalist on an assignment in Libya, who was driving his car on the same highway, the TV channel said.
The Libyan uprising, which developed into a civil war between opponents and supporters of the country’s longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi, began in mid-February. The conflict has already left thousands of people dead and forced many more to flee the country.
NATO is carrying out a military operation against Gaddafi, preventing forces loyal to the Libyan leader from attacking rebels. The operation was authorized by the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1973 on March 17 and was carried out by a U.S.-led international coalition force before being shifted to NATO on March 27.
MADRID, April 7 (RIA Novosti)