Dutch marines held in Libya after failed rescue

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Three Dutch marines were captured by forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi during a rescue attempt of two European workers and are being held by Libyan authorities for five days, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

The two Europeans, one Dutch and one whose nationality was not released, were handed over unharmed to the Dutch embassy in Tripoli Thursday and have left Libya, the ministry said.

The three were surrounded by armed men on Sunday after landing near Sirte in a Lynx helicopter from the navy ship HMS Tromp, which was anchored off the Libyan coast to help evacuations from the conflict-torn country, spokesman Otte Beeksma told The Associated Press.

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Dutch officials are in "intensive negotiations" with Qaddafi's government to secure the marines' release, he said.

"We have also been in contact with the crewmen involved," Beeksma said. "They are doing well under the circumstances and we hope they will be released as quickly as possible."

Defense Minister Hans Hillen welcomed the news that the two Europeans were safe and had left Libya. "Everything is being done to also get the crew safely out of the country as soon as possible," he said in a statement.

Asked if the Dutch government considered the marines hostages, Beeksma said, "they are being held by Libyan authorities."

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said news of the men's capture was kept quiet to assist talks on their release. Dutch daily De Telegraaf first reported their capture in its Thursday edition.

"These are situations that benefit from total secrecy because then you can carry out discussions in peace to ensure these people get home safely," he told national broadcaster NOS.

"It is terrible for the crew of the Lynx helicopter," Rutte said. "Everything is being done to make sure the crew gets home."

The identities of the marines were not released.

News of the marines' detention by Qaddafi came a day after anti-government rebels fought off forces loyal to Qaddafi in a fierce battle for Brega, a strategic oil facility 460 miles (740 kilometers) east of Qaddafi's stronghold in Tripoli.

Qaddafi's crackdown has been the harshest in the Arab world to the wave of anti-government protests sweeping across parts of the Middle East and North Africa. His forces are regrouping in an attempt to regain territories now controlled by opponents of his regime.

Also Thursday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said he is opening an investigation into possible crimes against humanity committed in Libya by Qaddafi and his sons.

Moreno-Ocampo said Qaddafi's security forces are alleged to have attacked peaceful demonstrators in several towns and cities across Libya since Feb. 15, and identified Qaddafi and several commanders and regime officials as having formal or de facto command over forces that may have committed crimes.

Moreno-Ocampo vowed Thursday there would be "no impunity in Libya."

According to a Libyan human rights group, at least 6,000 people have died in Qaddafi's brutal crackdown.

Violence and chaos in Libya have triggered an exodus of more than 180,000 refugees to Tunisia and Egypt, a U.N. official said Wednesday.

Egypt launched emergency airlifts and sent ships to handle the chaotic exodus. U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told The Associated Press that 77,320 people have crossed from Libya into Egypt, the vast majority of them Egyptians, and a similar number have crossed from Libya into Tunisia - with about 30,000 more waiting at that border.

Officials say the situation has been made even more volatile by humanitarian aid workers being blocked from reaching western Libya, patients reportedly being executed in hospitals, or shot by gunmen hiding in ambulances. Flemming said Muammar Qaddafi's forces appear to be targeting Egyptians and Tunisians, apparently because he believes they are the main trigger of the uprising against his regime.

"(There are) many, many terrified refugees" in the Libyan capital Tripoli who are too afraid to move for fear they will be killed, Fleming told AP.