Hostages freed in Egypt as kidnappers are killed

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 on Monday.

The freed hostages arrived in Cairo aboard an Egyptian military plane. They descended the aircraft smiling, some holding bouquets of flowers, to be greeted by Egyptian military officers and government officials along with foreign diplomats.

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 told Reuters. 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 19 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 euros, but Egypt's cabinet spokesman said no ransom was paid.

"What's most important is that they are all in good health," cabinet spokesman Magdy Radi said, adding the captives were freed after coordination between Egypt and Sudan.

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 percent of its gross domestic product.

The Egyptian government and many political analysts have said the kidnappers did not appear to have political motives.

Sudan violence

One Egyptian security source speaking on customary condition of anonymity said Egyptian forces had ambushed and attacked the kidnappers around dawn on Monday, and that 150 people had taken part in the operation to free the hostages.

Defence Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said half the kidnappers had been "liquidated", state news agency MENA said without giving details.

News of the release came a day after the Sudanese army said it had killed six hostage-takers and arrested two more in a gunbattle 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.

But by that time, the kidnappers had abandoned the hostages, who then crossed into Egypt independently before being rescued, Ahmed said.

"They were abandoned by the kidnappers. They left them somewhere and went away. They (the hostages) are all in good shape. They are happy. This is good news for everyone," he told Reuters.

Sudan has blamed the kidnapping on a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, a Darfur rebel group. But it has not said which splinter faction it believed was responsible for the kidnapping, and many rebels operate under that name.

The remote region where the hostages were seized contains cave paintings thought to be about 10,000 years old. It is accessible by desert vehicle from the conflict zones of Darfur and eastern Chad.