Dangers Grow for Correspondents Covering Libya Uprising

Three members of a BBC news crew covering the uprising in Libya were detained, beaten and subjected to mock executions Monday by Libyan troops and secret police, the BBC reported. 

Chris Cobb-Smith, Feras Killani and Goktay Koraltan were trying to reach the provincial town of Zawiya, about 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tripoli, when they were taken into custody along with their taxi driver.

"We were lined up against the wall. I was the last in line – facing the wall," Cobb-Smith told the BBC after he was released.  I looked and saw a plain-clothes guy with a small submachine gun. He put it to everyone's neck. I saw him and he screamed at me.

"Then he walked up to me, put the gun to my neck and pulled the trigger, twice. The bullets whisked past my ear. The soldiers just laughed."

In a news release, U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay likened it to torture.

"For them to be targeted, detained and treated with such cruelty, which could amount to torture, is completely unacceptable and in serious violation of international law," the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

UPDATE: Libyan officials confirmed Saturday that Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi national who had been missing for two weeks, is in government custody.  Andrei Netto, of the Brazilian newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo, who was traveling with Abdul-Ahad, was released Saturday.