DFA: Missing Pinoy engineer in Libya, safe

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino engineer in Libya taken by rebels after storming a house has escaped and is now safe, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said today.

DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said that the man, who was reported yesterday as just missing, was taken by the rebels when they left the house.

Hernandez said that he man called his wife in the Philippines on Tuesday to say he was able to escape unharmed and had made his way to a friend's house in Tripoli.

He said Filipinos and other foreign workers of the British-owned First Engineering Company were staying in the house that was ransacked by rebels before dawn Monday.

In another incident, armed men posing as rebels took three vehicles parked in front of the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli. They include two embassy cars and one owned by the World Health Organization.

There were no casualties reported.

The DFA has raised the crisis alert level in Libya to 4, declaring a mandatory evacuation and repatriation of all Filipino nationals in the strife-torn country.

The DFA said that the Philippine embassy has advised all Filipinos in Libya to remain indoors and wait for embassy officers to fetch them.

Hernandez had said that at least 90 of the 1,600 Filipinos, most of them medical workers, in Tripoli have expressed willingness to be repatriated.

Meanwhile, report said that hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Moammar Gadhafi's compound today.

The storming of Bab al-Aziziya, long the nexus of Gadhafi's power, marked the effective collapse of his 42-year-old regime. But with Gadhafi and his powerful sons still unaccounted for — and gunbattles flaring across the nervous city — the fighters cannot declare victory.

Hours after the battle erupted, a pro-Gadhafi TV channel quoted him as saying he retreated from his Tripoli compound in a "tactical move" after 64 NATO airstrikes turned it to rubbles. Al-Rai TV said Wednesday it would air the comments in full and reported an excerpt in which the leader of Libya's unraveling regime vowed his forces would resist "the aggression with all strength" until either victory or death.

The rebel force entered the compound after fighting for five hours with Gadhafi loyalists outside, using mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They killed some of those who defended the compound and hauled off thousands of rifles, crates of weapons and trucks with guns mounted on the back in a frenzy of looting.

"We're looking for Gadhafi now. We have to find him now," said Sohaib Nefati, a rebel sitting against a wall with a Kalashnikov rifle. -- with Associated Press