TUNIS: Tunisia said Friday it was shutting its consulate in conflict-hit Libya as 10 staffers abducted by an armed militia in Tripoli returned home after a week in captivity.

The staff were seized when gunmen burst into the consulate in the Libyan capital, in the latest attack targeting foreign citizens and diplomatic missions in the lawless nation.

Libya has rival governments and parliaments, as well as powerful militias battling for influence and a share of its oil wealth, including the Fajr Libya militia alliance that controls Tripoli.

Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche said the decision to shut the consulate was taken after the kidnapping.

“After this serious incident (kidnapping), we have decided to close the consulate in Tripoli,” Baccouche told reporters. “We will not reopen the consulate as long as protection for our civil servants is not guaranteed,” Baccouche said.

“When that protection becomes available, we will rethink” our options, said Baccouche, whose country has a consulate in Tripoli and another in the east.

He was speaking at the L’Aouina military airport in Tunis, where several of the ex-hostages arrived Friday morning.

Ex-hostage Jamal Saibi related to reporters how a group of armed men had stormed the consulate last week, rounding him and his colleagues up.

“They took us out of the building, put us in cars and drove us somewhere along the airport road,” he said.

Saibi said they were abducted because the gunmen wanted to press Tunisian authorities to released a jailed militia chief, Walid Glib.

Baccouche had earlier announced that the 10 staffers had been released — three of them Wednesday and the rest Friday.

He said that now all 23 consular workers who were in Libya are back home and safe.

Tunisian officials and media reported that Glib, who was arrested last month in connection with “terrorist” activity, would be deported as part of a deal with the kidnappers.

Media said Glib was deported early Friday.