Bangladesh identifies second oil hostage in Libya

DHAKA: Bangladesh identified a second citizen yesterday among a group of foreign workers taken hostage last week by the self-styled Islamic State militant group in an attack on a Libyan oilfield.

Foreigners have increasingly become targets in Libya’s turmoil, where two rival governments are battling for control and Islamist extremists have grown in the chaos that followed Muammar Gaddafi’s ousting four years ago.

Up to 10 foreign workers were missing after the attack on the Al-Ghani oil field south of the city of Sirte, Czech and Libyan officials have said.

There has been no sign of the oil workers from Austria, the Czech republic, Bangladesh, the Philippines and at least one African country who went missing, an Austrian foreign ministry spokesman said.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry yesterday identified the second abducted citizen as Mohammad Anowar Hossain, a resident of Noakhali, about 165km south-east of Dhaka, the capital.

He had mistakenly been identified as a Sudanese national with a similar name at first, the ministry said.

“However, Anowar’s identification was confirmed by a Bangladeshi working in a neighbouring oil field,” it said in a statement, adding that Libyan officials had assured the embassy in Tripoli they were making every effort to rescue the men.

Libyan militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State 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. – Reuters