Oil workers released in Nigeria

A Nigerian militant group that abducted oil workers and launched attacks on oil stations has released six of nine hostages held for two weeks, news agencies reported.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) continued to hold three captives – two Britons and an American – and warned of further attacks on foreign oil installations.

The group released one elderly US citizen with health problems, two Egyptians, two Thai nationals, and one Filipino. The nine worked for the Willbros Group, a Houston-based oil services company that was laying pipeline for oil giant Royal Dutch Shell.

A MEND spokesman said in a statement that two other Americans and a Briton were still being held.

The group kidnapped the oil workers in mid-February from a barge in the southern Niger Delta. The spokesperson reportedly referred to the freed hostages as