EGYPT: Eleven European tourists and eight Egyptians abducted in a remote border area of Egypt have been freed and half of their kidnappers killed, Egyptian officials said yesterday.
The 19 were liberated in what Egyptian media called a "rescue and recovery operation", although officials gave scant and contradictory details on how authorities secured the release or how the hostage-takers were killed.
"They have been released safe and sound," tourism minister Zoheir Garrana reported. State media said the freed hostages would be taken to a military hospital for health checks.
Masked gunmen seized the five Germans, five Italians, one Romanian and eight Egyptians on September 19th from a desert safari near Egypt's borders with Sudan and Libya, then whisked them into Sudan.
Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini said Italian special forces took part in securing their release, the Italian news agency Ansa reported. Egyptian officials said the kidnappers had demanded a large ransom that one security source put at €6 million, but Egypt's cabinet spokesman said no ransom was paid.
The kidnapping of foreign tourists was the first of its kind in Egypt and was an embarrassment to the government, which depends on tourism for 6 per cent of its gross domestic product.
One Egyptian security source, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, said Egyptian forces had ambushed and attacked the kidnappers at about dawn yesterday and that 150 people had taken part in the operation to free the hostages.
News of the release came a day after the Sudanese army said it had killed six hostage-takers and arrested two more in a gun battle near the Egyptian and Libyan border. A Sudanese official gave a differing account of how the hostages were freed.
Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol in the Sudanese foreign ministry, said the two men captured on Sunday had told security forces the kidnappers planned to head to Egypt and that Sudanese forces tried to cut off the remaining kidnappers near the border.
By that time, however, the kidnappers had abandoned the hostages, who then crossed into Egypt independently before being rescued, Mr Ahmed said. "They were abandoned by the kidnappers, they left them somewhere and went away. They are all in good shape. This is good news for everyone."
Sudan has blamed the kidnapping on a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, a Darfuri rebel group.
- (Reuters)