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Middle East and North Africa

Media: two foreigners gunned down in Libya's west

Supposedly, they could be workers employed at a nearby oil and gas complex. The identities of those killed are being verified

© EPA/MOHAMMED DAW AMER

ABU DHABI, January 3 (Itar-Tass) - The bodies of two foreigners were found on Thursday not far from the city of Zuwara in Libya's west. The Sky News-Arabia television channel reported that a Briton and a New Zealander had been killed from firearms.

The foreigners' bodies, the TV channel reports, were discovered in the coastal district of Melita. Supposedly, they could be workers employed at a nearby oil and gas complex. The identities of those killed are being verified.

Analysts' estimate is that the Briton and the New Zealander, most likely, fell victim to an assault related to robbery. Under conditions when the authorities are in control of only a small part of territory two years after the end of the civil war, robberies become habitual to Libyans. Still operating in the country are former militias, among them radical Islamists, who are not accountable to the center and establish their own laws in territories controlled by them. Quite often they attack state institutions or rich representative offices of local companies.

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Middle East and North Africa

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