Sabratha

U.N. agencies said on Monday they were trying to provide urgent help to large numbers of migrants held and then stranded in the smuggling hub of Sabratha as rival factions battled for control of the city.

A key pillar of the Italian government's effort to stem the politically toxic issue of people crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to southern Italy is in danger of collapse as a result of a bloody power struggle in the key Libyan port of Sabratha, the epicentre of human trafficking to Italy, The Guardian writes.

Shocking photos of dead refugees and immigrants piled on each other near in a boat off the coastal city of Sabratha in the Libyan Sea have emerged online. A Spanish humanitarian ogranisation detected the gruesome sight of 13 dead people, including a pregnant woman and children, while other refugees and immigrants were sitting around the corpses in life jackets.

About 146 migrants are feared missing after their boat capsized after leaving Libya, according to a Gambian man who was rescued following the disaster, the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Wednesday.
The man was rescued by a Spanish military ship participating in the EU’s “Operation Sophia” to crack down on smugglers, and then brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

About 6,055 migrants were rescued and 22 found dead on the perilous sea route to Europe on Oct. 3, one of the highest numbers in a single day, Italian and Libyan officials said. 

Two Serbian embassy staff members abducted in Libya in November are believed to have been killed on Feb. 19 in U.S. air strikes on a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) training camp, Serbia's foreign minister said on Feb. 20.

Two Serbian citizens kidnapped in Libya earlier this month are both alive, PM Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday.

Serbian embassy employees Sladjana Stankovic and Jovica Stepic were taken from a convoy of vehicles in the town of Sabratha on November 8.

Two Serbian embassy employees kidnapped in Libya on Sunday are held in a house "on the outskirts of the town of Sabratha," a Belgrade daily writes on Wednesday.

According to Vecernje Novosti, Serbian security services are "constantly in contact with Libyan authorities," and through them with the kidnappers.

Serbian citizens abducted in Libya have been located "near the town of Sabratha," the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti said it learned.

A convoy of Serbian embassy vehicles came under attack in this town on Sunday, when an embassy official and a driver were taken by the kidnappers.

ATTACK ON CONVOY Two employees of Serbian embassy kidnapped in Libya

A liaison officer and a driver of the Serbian embassy in Libya were kidnapped on Sunday afternoon in Sabratha.

They were taken after a motorcade of cars, in which Serbian Ambassador Oliver Potezica was also traveling, came under attack.