16 journalists detained, missing in battle-torn Libya

NEW YORK (AP):

Sixteen journalists covering the conflict in Libya are reported missing or detained by authorities in the North African country. Three Americans are on the list of endangered journalists, compiled yesterday by the Committee to Protect Journalists and other reports.

Two American reporters were taken into custody on April 5 by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi: James Foley, a photojournalist working for GlobalPost, a Boston-based news agency; and Clare Morgana Gillis, who was covering the fighting for The Atlantic and USA Today. The third American is freelance journalist Matthew VanDyke.

Foley and Gillis contacted relatives in the United States in recent days.

urgent appeal

Gillis called her parents in New Haven, Connecticut, last Thursday and made a second phone call home yesterday. Her parents said she told them that she is being treated humanely and being held in a woman's jail in Tripoli.

"We were glad to hear from our daughter again," said her mother, Jane Gillis. "We urgently appeal to the Libyan government to let her come home immediately."

Foley had a five-minute conver-sation with his mother in Rochester, New Haven, on Saturday. He told her that he was not injured and was being treated well. A Spanish photojournalist captured with Foley and Gillis, Manu Brabo, called his parents on Sunday to say that he was well but was being held in a Tripoli military prison.