3 Pinoys among 7 taken by gunmen from Libyan oil field

Three Filipinos were among seven foreigners abducted by unidentified armed men at an oil field in Central Libya this week, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Wednesday night.

 

The Filipinos were seized at the Mabruk Oil Field on Feb. 3, Del Rosario said.

 

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Embassy in Libya are monitoring the situation and coordinating closely with the SOGEPI SRL Italy Company, employer of the Filipinos, in ensuring their well-being and safe return,” Del Rosario said in a text message to GMA News Online.

The employer is reportedly already in touch with the Filipino victims' families in the country.
 

A French diplomatic source in Paris said four local employees were believed to have been killed in the raid on the remote al-Mabrook oilfield south of Sirte on Tuesday night.

 

France's Total has a stake in the site but it is contracted to a Libyan company. 

 

"Unknown gunmen stormed the Mabrook oilfield last night," National Oil Corp (NOC) spokesman Mohamed El Harari said, without providing details.

 

Ali al-Hassi, spokesman for an oil guard force, blamed Islamists for the attack.

 

"The field is outside of our control," he said. "Islamic State is controlling it."

Battle over oil ports
 

Rival armed factions have been fighting for almost two months for control of Libya's biggest oil ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, on the Mediterranean coast.

 

Four years after the overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi, the country is in turmoil with two rival governments controlling different areas, each with their own armies.

 

The recognized government of Abdullah al-Thinni and elected parliament has been forced to work out of an eastern rump state since a faction called Libya Dawn seized the capital Tripoli in August, setting up its own administration and reinstating the old assembly.

 

Al-Mabrook closed following clashes which shut Es Sider in December. It used to pump 40,000 barrels a day.

 

Total said it had already withdrawn staff from the site in 2013 and had no personnel onshore since July 2014. It was not clear whether NOC had employed expatriate staff at the field.

 

The French diplomatic source said no French citizens were among the dead.

 

"There are possibly four dead local people," he said.

 

It was not immediately possible to verify the assertion that Islamists were involved.

Tripoli attack
 

Militants claiming links to Islamic State, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq, claimed an attack on the Corinthia luxury hotel in Tripoli last week that killed nine people, among them five foreigners.

 

Officials of the government in Tripoli denied the claim, blaming "Gaddafi loyalists" for that assault.

 

Militants in Libya have claimed loyalty to Islamic State on social media but facts are hard to get in a country where officials often contradict themselves.

 

Western powers and Libya's neighbors have been worried about a spread of Islamist militants in the desert nation. Sirte is home to members of the Ansar al-Sharia Islamist group blamed by Washington for an attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi in 2012 in which the U.S. ambassador was killed.

 

The abduction came a week after a Filipino woman was injured in a terrorist attack on an upscale hotel in capital Tripoli, highlighting the danger faced by hundreds of Philippine nationals working in the country, which has been plagued by months of civil unrest and armed hostilities.

 

In July last year, a Filipino construction worker was beheaded by militants and a Filipina nurse was kidnapped and gang-raped by a group of Libyan youth. 

 

At least 4,000 workers have remained in Libya, defying calls from the Philippine government to leave.

 

The DFA is enforcing mandatory evacuation of all OFWs there after declaring crisis alert level 4 - the highest security warning given by the Philippines on countries that pose security risks to Filipino travelers and migrant workers due to armed conflict or disaster.  — with Reuters/NB/ELR, GMA News