Kidnapped Italian engineer freed in Libya

An Italian construction engineer abducted in Libya four months ago has been freed and is on his way home, the foreign ministry said Thursday. The ministry provided no details of how Marco Vallisa, 54, came to be liberated. But a security source in Libya told AFP Vallisa had been held by "an armed militia" who freed him after they obtained a "ransom of around one million euros ($1.25 million)." The source, who declined to be named, did not identify the group but confirmed that Vallisa was on his way home.
Vallisa was working in the coastal city of Zwara, west of Tripoli, for Italian building group Piacentini Costruzioni when he was kidnapped on July 5. Two colleagues taken with him, Bosnian Petar Matic and Emilio Gafuri from Macedonia, were released two days later.