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How forces freed hostages
By Colin Adamson in London and Allan Hall in Berlin, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 14.05.03For months they were held captive in the Sahara desert but today, after a fierce battle, they are free.
Seventeen hostages - 10 Austrians, six Germans and a Swede - were released by special forces and are "safe and sound", according to the Algerian army.
However, nine heavily-armed kidnappers from the Islamic extremist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat are reported to have been killed in the battle which began with a dawn raid and lasted several hours.
The carefully-planned commando strike took place after the Algerian army used reconnaissance planes equipped with thermal vision gear to locate the hostages and their kidnappers - a group of about 45 people in all.
Both Germany and Austria are understood to have sent members of their elite anti-terrorist forces to Algeria to assist forces on the ground.
The wife of one of the Austrian hostages said today that her husband and the others were "freed in a rescue operation that turned out to be very violent".
Monika Bleckmann, who has become a spokeswoman for the Austrian families of the captives, told a radio station: "We were told by officials that it ended in bloodshed."
In all, a total of 32 European tourists had vanished in late February and early March in a remote scenic desert region in southern Algeria famous for its ancient grave sites.
They were travelling in seven separate groups, in four-wheel drive vehicles or on motorcycles.
None had hired guides. There was still no news today of the fate of the remainder of those missing - 10 more Germans, four Swiss and a Dutchman - in an unstable area on the Libyan border also known for arms and drug smuggling.
German interior minister Otto Schily said "there is hope" that another 10 Germans "will be free soon".
However, in Zurich there was official concern today for the safety of the four missing Swiss tourists.
Foreign ministry spokesman Simon Hubacher said: "We do not resulted in the deaths of captives. He said. "I am naturally very relieved that all of the Austrians appear to be well and that the hostage drama did not end in a bloody way."
A foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin added that all six Germans were in good health and had been taken to the German embassy in Algiers.
A Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman added: "The Swede was found together with the group of six Germans."
The exact motive for the kidnappings is not yet clear, however the Swiss French-language weekly magazine Hebdo reported in its latest edition that the Algerian authorities had received ransom demands for between £15 million and £20 million for the group.
Algerian authorities began searching the 800,000 square mile Algerian Sahara, an area the size of France, for the tourists in March using thousands of soldiers and military aircraft.
Algeria is concerned that kidnappings will hurt the country's tourism industry which had been showing signs of recovery after years of bad publicity.
"Not a single tourist has arrived since the European tourists disappeared," said a worried Ahmed Zejri, owner of the largest travel agency in southern Algeria. "This incident is killing tourism."
The country is just getting back on its feet after a decade of violence where more than 100,000 people have been killed following the cancellation of general elections that radical Islamists were poised to win.
