Two reporters of the Russian newspaper Kosmomolskaia Pravda have succeeded in contacting five Serbs held prisoner by the Libyan rebels, who believe they were pro-Gaddafi snipers.

The reporters identified the five men as Zoran Nikolic and Nedeljko Milanovic from Lazarevac, Milorad Junic from Loznica, Milic Martinovic from Arandjelovac and Vojislav Niciforovic from Belgrade. They are kept in an improvised detention facility, where they sleep on the floor, but claim that the rebels are not treating them poorly or beating them and are providing them with food.

The newspaper also printed a photo of the men.

The reporters reached the five prisoners after interviewing the rebel commander of the Tripoli airport.

The Serbs say they arrived in Libya on August 12 to work on road repair for a company with mixed Serbian and Libyan ownership and that they were promised excellent wages.

They explained they were arrested at a barricade when a group of armed men saw their passports and accused them of helping Gaddafi, but they escaped and hid in houses throughout Tripoli afterwards.

They then paid a taxi driver EUR 500 to take them to the Serbian embassy, but were arrested again at the first barricade under suspicion of being snipers.

The rebels informed the prisoners they would soon be transported to Az Zintan, a town in western Libya, and released if everything turns out alright.