Iran Urges Release of Red Crescent Workers Kidnapped in Libya

Tehran is demanding the immediate release of a group of Iranian Red Crescent workers kidnapped in Libya, and says the Libyan government is responsible for their lives, the ISNA news agency reported on Thursday.

"Iran demands immediate action to free the seven members of the Iranian Red Crescent," deputy foreign affairs minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian was quoted as saying.

"The Libyan government is responsible for their lives," he said.

Abdollahian added that the seven Iranians were in good health. "We hope that, through the efforts of the Libyan government and Red Crescent, they will soon be released and return home."

The group was abducted on Tuesday in Benghazi in eastern Libya.

A security official in Libya told Agence France Presse on Wednesday that the men are being held and questioned by a local militia who thought they might have been trying to promote Shiite Islam, which some in mostly Sunni Libya view as heretical.

"They will be released after the investigation is concluded," said the official, adding that "the team is being treated well and has not been subjected to any abuse."

The official did not name the brigade holding the Iranian team, but noted that its members are reputed to be "Islamist extremists."

Amnesty International has also called for the Iranians to be released.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty, have repeatedly expressed concern over the continuation of arbitrary arrests and secret detention centers run by militias who fought last year against slain leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The Libyan Red Crescent said that the Iranian delegation had arrived on Monday at its invitation and that their visas were in order. It too has called for the Iranians' release.