- TUNIS, Tunisia: Tunisia’s Interior Ministry reports that 80 Tunisian workers held by an armed group have been released.
- The workers from the Socomina hardware company were taken hostage on Monday following the arrest over the weekend of four Libyans for drug possession in the Tunisian border town of Ben Guerdane.
According to the ministry statement Wednesday, the Tunisian workers were released from the Libyan town of Zawiya, near the border, only after the Tunisians allowed the Libyans to return home.
Initial report from the state news agency had put the number of employees taken at 150 and said they were from an oil company.
The border region between Tunisia and Libya, the main crossing point for goods, has seen repeated inicidents involving armed former rebels.