Libya Briefly Holds Four U.S. Military Personnel

Four U.S. military personnel have been freed after a brief detention by the Libyan government, the U.S. State Department said Saturday.

State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, who hours earlier announced that the Americans had been detained, did not say why they were held.

"All four U.S. military personnel being held in Libyan government custody have been released," Psaki said in a brief statement just after midnight Friday.

"We are still trying to ascertain the facts of the incident."

According to Psaki, the four "were operating in an area near Sabratha as part of security preparedness efforts when they were taken into custody."

Sabratha, known for its Roman ruins, is located some 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.

"We value our relationship with the new Libya," said Psaki. "We have a strategic partnership based on shared interests and our strong support for Libya's historic democratic transition."

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Agence France Presse that the four were released just two hours after the U.S. State Department announced their detention.

The military staff were attached to the security team at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli and may have been scouting escape routes for possible future use by diplomats, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The personnel were detained at a checkpoint and moved to the Ministry of the Interior, according to the Times.

Americans in Libya have been targeted more than once since 2011, when the regime of strongman Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown by local rebel groups backed by U.S. and NATO airpower.

In September 2012 four people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, were killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by Islamist gunmen with alleged al-Qaida ties.

And earlier this month an American teacher was gunned down during his morning jog in Benghazi in an attack blamed on Islamist extremists.

Libya's new authorities have struggled to integrate the rebel groups that helped topple the Gadhafi regime into the regular armed forces. Militias have carved out their own fiefdoms, each with its own ideology and regional allegiances.

In November, Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart William Hague met in London with Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and agreed to help Libya crack down on militia violence.

The Pentagon also said that the U.S. military were prepared to train between 5,000 and 8,000 Libyan army troops at a base in Bulgaria. There were also plans to train a separate counter-terrorism unit, said Admiral William McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

But Libya and the United States have also had disagreements: in early October, U.S. commandos seized senior alleged al-Qaida figure Abu Anas al-Libi -- indicted for the twin 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa -- on the streets of Tripoli and whisked him away to custody onboard a warship.

The suspect was then moved to New York, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Libi's capture embarrassed the Libyan government, which denounced it as "kidnapping" and claimed it had not been given advance notice of the seizure.