The New York Times journalists reported missing Tuesday will be released today. In an interview with Christiane Amanpour, Muammar Qaddafi’s son Seif Islam Qaddafi appeared to refer to Lynsey Addario, an experienced war photographer and the only woman in the group, but government officials told the U.S. State Department that all four will be released. In a transcript of the interview, Seif al-Islam Qaddafi said:
They entered the country illegally and when the army, when they liberated the city of Ajdabiya from the terrorists and they found her, they arrest her because, you know, foreigners in this place. But then they were happy because they found out she is American, not European. And thanks to that, she will be free tomorrow.
Like many reporters from the West trying to cover the conflict, the Times journalists entered the rebel-controlled region in the east without visas by crossing the Egyptian border. After the Times reported them missing Tuesday, Qaddafi’s officials said that if they had been detained by Libyan military forces, they would be located and released unharmed.
