Police in Nigeria say unknown gunmen have shot and killed a Lebanese oil worker in the country's volatile Niger Delta region.
Details on the attack are still sketchy. But local police say the attack occurred early Friday outside the city of Port Harcourt - the center of Nigeria's oil industry.
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Meanwhile, Italy's Foreign Ministry is reporting the kidnapping of two Italian construction workers in the Niger Delta. That incident also took place near Port Harcourt Friday.
The violence comes one day after Nigerian militants threatened retaliation against the Italian oil firm Agip and the government of Nigeria's Bayelsa state. The militant group MEND said Agip and state officials were behind an escape plan that freed a Lebanese hostage it was holding.
Niger Delta militants have carried out a wave of kidnappings and attacks that have crippled Nigeria's oil industry.
The militants say they want impoverished villages in the Delta to get a greater share of the region's oil wealth. MEND (the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) is holding another two Italians it captured in December.
Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer. The country pumped about 2.6 million barrels a day until last year. However, the militant activities in the Niger Delta have cut production by at least 20 percent.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.