GLOBAL JIHAD Islamists clench missing tourists

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | April 29, 2003

[miltonim]

GLOBAL JIHAD

Islamists clench missing tourists

Reports confirm Europeans believed held by Muslim militants in Algeria

Reports across Europe say 31 tourists missing for two months are in the custody of Islamic militants tied to the al-Qaida terror network, confirming information reported last week by WorldNetDaily and the G2 Bulletin.

Algerian police have discovered one of the vehicles used by some of the 31 tourists who vanished without a trace in the Sahara Desert, Germany's ARD radio reported.

And a senior Algerian army official told the French newspaper Le Monde the trekkers are in the hands of more than a dozen Islamists, having been separated into two groups.

"They are well and their lives are not in danger," the official told Le Monde.

He added they appeared to have plenty of water, but the food situation was more critical. The tourists are reportedly captive in canyons and gullies near the town of Illizi, not far from the Libyan border.

Four German-speaking Swiss trekkers traveling near the Libyan border disappeared in early February. Eleven tourists, traveling by motorbike, vanished Feb. 21. Several other small parties vanished before 10 Austrians were declared missing after failing to show up for their ferry from Tunis.

A blue Iveco truck belonging to a married couple from Augsburg, Germany, was found with its caravan superstructure burned out, and it had been "practically buried under sand."

News of the tourists' locating was confirmed independently to Agence France-Presse by a diplomatic source in Mali two days ago.

"The 31 have been spotted and our Algerian brothers are working in double quick time to ensure their release," the official said.

The tourists are thought to be at the mercy of the extreme Islamist organization, the "Salafist Group for Combat and Prayer" – the same group believed to be involved in a plot to use the nerve gas sarin on the London underground.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has given a wide berth to most Algerian Islamist groups, regarding them as deeply infiltrated – or even operated – by the military. The Salafist group is, however, regarded by French intelligence services as one of the satellites of the al-Qaida network.

According to Le Monde, the Algerian army is respecting the request of Germany and other nations to avoid freeing the captives by force, with specific orders to let the Islamists go free if they cooperate.

"We will have a chance to catch them another day," the official said. But he speculated the group might seek to exchange the hostages for Algerian terrorists jailed recently for planning bomb attacks in Strasbourg.

The Algerian press originally said the tourists, operating without guides in one of the most unforgiving landscapes in the world, may simply have gotten lost – in seven separate groups.

The adventurers – from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, and Norway – were navigating by Global Positioning Systems, which establish a precise position on the Earth's surface by satellite. Algerian newspapers, quoting government officials, said the United States had scrambled GPS systems to confuse the Iraqis before the start of the war.

The German, Austrian and Swiss governments refused to accept the explanation and issued statements that the incidents were "not coincidental but a result of something systematic." They sent teams of anti-terrorist police and secret service agents to help with – and watch over – the search undertaken by 1,200 Algerian police and army.

The only signs of life from the missing tourists were an aborted mobile phone call from a Swiss trekker and a message, written in German, found in the desert, which said: "We are still alive." Such was the pessimism among friends and relatives of the missing Germans, several had started to send toothbrushes and hairbrushes to police so their bodies could be identified by their DNA.