Libyan crisis: Pro-Gaddafi forces capture 3 Dutch airmen

Paris: Libyan authorities loyal to Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi have captured three crew members of a Dutch naval helicopter who were rescuing European citizens, last Sunday, the Dutch Defense Ministry said on Thursday, the first report of foreigners being by held in Libya's bloody and unfolding uprising.

Otte Beeksma, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said in a telephone interview that the pro-Gaddafi forces also captured two civilians being rescued -- one Dutch, the other from an unspecified European country -- who had since been released.

Mr. Beeksma, said the crew of a Lynx helicopter had landed in the coastal city of Sirte -- a pro-Gaddafi stronghold -- after flying from a navy ship, the HMS Tromp, anchored offshore. The helicopter was "surrounded by armed Libyan forces late on Sunday afternoon."

The two people being evacuated were transferred to the Dutch Embassy in Tripoli on Sunday, but the crew and their helicopter were still being held. Mr. Beeksma did not identify the two people who were being rescued.

The use of military personnel in such operations is not limited to the Dutch authorities. Last weekend, British news reports said British special forces accompanied a rescue effort by the Royal Air Force to pluck oil workers to safety from remote desert encampments.

But, so far, there has been no indication of other military personnel being taken prisoner.

Mr. Beeksma, speaking in a telephone interview, said "intensive negotiations" were underway to secure the release of three naval personnel seized during what he called a consular operation.

Their capture came at a time when both sides in Libya's turmoil insist there should be no foreign military intervention on the ground, although some rebels in the east have spoken in favor of airstrikes to cripple Colonel Gaddafi's air force, which conducted bombing raids on Wednesday in fighting for the oil port of Brega.

But there was some concern that the three Dutch crew member could risk being used as propaganda tools, like a group of British Royal Marines captured in the Persian Gulf by Iranian forces in 2007 and paraded in front of the television cameras when they were released by President Ahmadinejad.


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