Three Dutch marines were surrounded by armed men loyal to Moammar Gadhafi and captured while trying to rescue European workers by helicopter near the Libyan coastal town of Sirte, a Netherlands Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

“We have also been in contract with the crewmen involved,” spokesman Otte Beeksma told the Associated Press. “They are doing well under the circumstances and we hope they will be released as quickly as possible.” Asked whether the Dutch government considered the marines hostages, Beeksma said: “They are being held by Libyan authorities.”

A Lynx helicopter from the Tromp, a frigate cruising off the Libyan coast, landed near Sirte on Sunday to help evacuate the civilians, Beeksma said. The news was kept quiet until De Telegraaf, a Dutch paper, reported it Thursday. “These are situations that benefit from total secrecy because then you can carry out discussions in peace to ensure these people get home safely,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told a Dutch broadcaster.

Two civilians — one Dutch, another from an unspecificed European country — that were also seized by Libyan authorities have since been released and allowed to leave the country, according to CBS News. But the marines have been held all week.

“It is terrible for the crew of the Lynx helicopter,” Prime Minister Rutte said. “Everything is being done to make sure the crew gets home.”

No No-Fly Zone, But An ICC Investigation

Libya’s lengthening civil war has alarmed foreign governments, and the EU may hold an emergency summit on the crisis next Friday. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, said Thursday that Gadhafi and members of his inner circle would be investigated for crimes against humanity, particularly over complaints that his forces have been killing peaceful Libyan protesters.

“We cannot confirm these allegations that these civilians were bombed by planes,” Moreno-Ocampo told CNN. “But we have … confirmation that civilians that were demonstrating were shot by security forces.”

In Washington, some defense officials tempered rumors of a Western-led “no-fly zone” to aid the rebels. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized “loose talk” about a military intervention. “Let’s just call a spade a spade,” he said in testimony before Congress on Wednesday. “A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses. That’s the way you do a no-fly zone.”

So far, military incursions have been restricted to attempts, like the Dutch mission Sunday, to evacuate foreigners. The US has sent two of its own warships — including an amphibious assault ship — to the Mediterranean to watch developments, however. On Wednesday, Italy announced a plan to send navy vessels to the Tunisian-Libyan border.

Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, told the news agency ANSA that the ships’ mission is to establish an Italian-run refugee camp for people fleeing the violence. Rome will provide food and medical aid to thousands of people on the border, in the hope of stemming an exodus to Italian shores.

‘A Very Serious Humanitarian Emergency’

Italy has worried about a migration of Africans from Libya as the Gadhafi regime collapses. In recent years Gadhafi has cooperated with European governments — in exchange for cash and aid — to form a bulwark against illegal immigration to the EU.

Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commission’s humanitarian aid and crisis response commissioner, said the EU “welcomes very favorably” the plan for refugee camps. “At this time the absolute priority is to address a very serious humanitarian emergency and help the people in difficulty on the ground,” she said.

She played down European self-interest in the camps, saying the volume of immigrants trying to cross the Mediterranean was not as high as everyone had feared. “It would be wrong to give the impression that we only want to defend our homes,” she said.

Bangladeshis ‘Should Stay’

Meanwhile, the government of Bangladesh has given mixed signals to its citizens working in Libya. One member of the government has recommended that Bangladeshis should remain in Libya, against the advice of the UN’s refugee agency.

“These are poor people,” said a spokesman for the Labor Ministry in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital. “If they return to Bangladesh, they will lose everything. We recommend that all Bangladeshis in Libya should stay there and wait for an improvement in conditions.”

Some 60,000 Bangladeshis live in Libya as construction workers, according to Bangladeshi government estimates.

With reporting by Hasnain Kazim in Bangladesh

msm — with wire reports