Tunisia says consular staff kidnapped in Libya have returned home
Ten Tunisian diplomatic staff kidnapped by gunmen from the consulate in the Libyan capital Tripoli a week ago have been freed and have returned home safely, the Tunisian government said on Friday.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but in Libya's chaos, armed groups have kidnapped diplomats and foreign nationals to pressure their governments to free Libyan militants held in jails overseas.
Libya's two rival governments - one internationally recognised and the other self-declared - are fighting on several fronts in an internecine struggle that has emerged since the 2011 fall of strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
Three of the 10 Tunisians had been freed earlier in the week after negotiations between the captors and Libya's self-declared government, which was set up in Tripoli a year ago after an armed faction called Libya Dawn took over the capital.
"They have been freed and they have already arrived in Tunis this Friday," Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Bakouch told Reuters.
