Sirte: Libyan state television has shown a Dutch navy helicopter crew after being captured while attempting to evacuate two foreign nationals.
The TV footage showed the three-member crew along with Lynx helicopter and weapons. The copter had entered Libyan air space “in breach of international law”, the state TV said.
Dutch officials say the helicopter was captured on Sunday near Sirte while trying to fly out two Europeans.
Talks are under way to free the crew, who are two men and one woman.
They had landed near Sirte, a port city in central Libya under the control of government forces, to carry out a “consular evacuation”, the Dutch defence ministry said.
An armed Libyan unit captured them along with the two evacuees – a Dutch national and another, unidentified European – who were later released by the Libyan authorities and left the country.
The Dutch defence ministry has been in contact with the crew who were “doing well under the circumstances”, a Dutch spokesman said.
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