BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) ― Security forces briefly detained on Thursday two Americans playing for a basketball team in Libya’s volatile eastern city of Benghazi, a security source said.

The unidentified men, who play for Benghazi’s Al-Hilal, “were picked up while they were practicing near Garyounes University,” said one of the school’s security officials.

“They were arrested in the company of two Libyans and were freed after being questioned,” the source said without explaining why they had been picked up.

On Friday, four U.S. military personnel on a security mission in Libya were briefly detained near Sabratha, 60 kilometers west of Tripoli, without any reason being given.

The New York Times reported that the four were attached to the U.S. embassy’s security team and had been working on scenarios for a theoretical evacuation of U.S. government employees in the country.

The U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in September 2012 when militants assaulted the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

And an American teacher was shot dead early last month as he jogged in the city.