Medical workers released in Libya after 2-week abduction

Six medical workers were released in Libya after being abducted and held hostage for nearly two weeks by unknown armed men, a leading human rights group said on Thursday. Human Rights Watch’s statement said the four physicians, a nurse and an anesthetic technician were released the previous day. Their nationalities were not immediately made available. Months of fighting between rival Libyan governments for control of the capital, Tripoli, took a further toll on medical workers Thursday. Two field hospitals near the front lines were hit by separate attacks, killing an ambulance worker and wounding another medical worker in the eye, said Wedad Ben Niran, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry in Tripoli.

The capital is held by an array of militias loosely allied with a UN-supported but weak government. They are fending off a push to take the city by forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a veteran army officer aligned with a rival government in the east.

Hafter’s offensive began in April, but fighting has stalled in recent weeks. Both sides are dug in and shelling one another along the city’s southern reaches. Human Rights Watch said the abducted medical workers had been used as “bargaining chips for the release of an imprisoned man,” Izzedine Al-Wahishi, who’s currently being held in the capital.

HRW said he was from the same western city of Zintan where the medical workers’ humanitarian convoy was stopped by armed men on Oct. 12.