Spanish news photographer missing in Libya

A Spanish news photographer who traveled to Libya to cover the civil war has been missing since Monday along with three other photojournalists, one of his colleagues confirmed on Thursday.

Manuel Brabo, 33, a native of Gijón, went to Libya to work as a freelancer about a month ago, his friend, the photographer Manuel Varela de Sijas Bravo, told Efe news agency.

Brabo was sending pictures of the Libyan conflict for the European photo agency Epa, which was distributing his photographs throughout Europe and the Americas.

According to the security advisor to The New York Times, who was interviewed by a La Vanguardia reporter, the four journalists were detained on Tuesday when Gaddafi's forces launched an offensive on a highway between Brega and Ajdabiya.

Fate unknown

The advisor, who was traveling with the journalists but in a different vehicle, said he saw how the group got trapped in the line of fire by Gaddafi's troops. Brabo and the other three were detained by soldiers, who later burned their vehicle and took them away, he said. The other three other photojournalists were James Fowley and Claire Morgane from the United States and Anton el Harmmel, a South African.

No one knows their whereabouts, but according to Efe their personal belongings and equipment were still in the hotel in Benghazi where they were staying.

In his personal blog, Brabo wrote about his news coverage in Libya. His last entry was dated March 20. Three days later, he wrote an account of the conflict for the Basque newspaper Gara.

In another incident, a Spanish family is trying to escape war-torn Misrata. "Their home has been destroyed. They are living with some friends and going through a very bad time," said Aiman Abushahma, a physician who is helping treat the wounded in Misrata. Abushahma is the nephew of Omar Abu-Gharsa, 62, who along with his wife Ascensión Álvarez Peña, a 49-year-old native of Toledo, are seeking help in escaping.

The couple has four children.

Abushahma, in an interview by satellite phone, said that along with the Spaniards there are other Europeans, the majority of them Ukrainians, who are also trapped in Misrata.