ISIS militants kidnapped 20 foreigners working at a Libyan hospital, then released them -- under the condition, if they want to live, that they stay put so they can treat members of the Islamist extremist group, a hospital official said.
About 30
gunmen tied to the group calling itself the Islamic State stormed Ibn
Sina Hospital in Sirte on Monday while a bus was waiting to take the
workers to Tripoli, Libya's capital.
The medical workers were later released
and sent back to their homes near the medical facility, a hospital
official said Tuesday. But they can't go far, with ISIS militants
ordering them not to leave Sirte, according to the official.
One
of those kidnapped, a doctor from Uzbekistan, was told he is safe as
long as he didn't leave, and he treated any militants who were wounded,
the hospital official said.
"They told him that, for your life, you (stay) and work in the city," the official added.
Like the doctor, the other medical workers aren't Libyan. Most are from the Philippines, with others from Ukraine, India and Serbia.
The kidnappings came days after people of Filipino, Austrian, Czech, Ghanaian and Bangladeshi descent were taken from Libya's Al-Ghani oil field, an operation that Libya's internationally recognized government blamed on "ISIS militias."
The
abductions are more evidence of the turmoil Libya has experienced since
2011, the start of an uprising against longtime dictator Moammar
Gadhafi.
Sirte was Gadhafi's hometown, where he was killed, and where his loyalists held out the longest. In the years since, Sirte has become a home to ISIS.
Official: ISIS didn't want medical workers to leave
The
coastal city, halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi, is where terrorists
kidnapped 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt in separate incidents in
December and January.
That mass
abduction was followed by mass slaughter -- one that, in ISIS'
distinctive, depraved style, was videotaped and disseminated as
propaganda, showing jihadists standing behind their orange-clad,
handcuffed victims and then beheading them.
"The
sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in," a masked
English-speaking jihadi said on the video, "we swear to Allah, we will
mix it with your blood."
Like the Egyptians, the medical workers kidnapped Monday are foreigners, having come to Sirte to work.
They also have skills that could help ISIS.
The
Ibn Sina Hospital official believes the extremist group went after the
workers -- who'd been trying to flee Sirte's precarious security
situation -- because they make up the only medical team there and might
be needed to treat ISIS militants.
ISIS a growing threat in Libya, elsewhere in Africa
The large-scale kidnapping illustrates how ISIS has become a disruptive force in Africa.
The
group's main foothold is in Iraq and Syria, where it has ruthlessly
conquered territory and threatened to take more despite efforts by local
governments and a U.S.-led air campaign.
ISIS branched out into Libya last year, with CNN reporting in November that fighters loyal to the group had complete control of Derna, a city of about 100,000 near the Egyptian border.
Militants who've pledged allegiance to
ISIS also have made their mark in points westward, forming chapters in
cities including Sirte, Benghazi and Tripoli, according to Noman
Benotman, a former Libyan jihadist now involved in counterterrorism as head of the Quilliam Foundation.
Besides its actions in Derna and Sirte, ISIS' Libyan branch claimed responsibility for a January attack on a luxury hotel in Tripoli that killed 10 people, one of them American David Berry.
But ISIS isn't just active in Libya. Earlier this month, Boko
Haram -- another Islamist extremist group with its own reputation for
mass abductions and craven brutality -- pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
This bond gives ISIS a gateway to West Africa and specifically to Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and Boko Haram's home.