Six kidnappers 'shot dead' after Egypt abduction
Sunday, 28 Sep 2008 18:20
Six kidnappers 'shot dead' after Egypt abduction
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All but two of a group of eight kidnappers who abducted a group of
European tourists in Egypt last week have been shot and killed by Sudanese forces.
The two surviving kidnappers were taken into custody and told Sudanese soldiers that the tourists remain in captivity in Chad, a military spokesman said.
The hostages - five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptian guides - are believed to be unharmed.
"Sudanese forces followed the tracks of the kidnappers from [the] Jebel Uweinat [mountain range on the Sudan-Egypt border] and found them on the Chad border," presidential advisor Mahjoub Fadl Badri was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
"Sudanese forces killed six, including the commander of a
Darfur rebel group, and arrested two," he said.
"What the [captured] kidnappers say is that the hostages are still in Chad, they put them in a hideout and are still negotiating about them, but we have no details whether the Chadian army has moved in."
The tourists were kidnapped on the Gilf al-Kebir plateau, some 500 miles southwest of Cairo and a region famed for its cave paintings.