Islamic extremists who held freed 14 European tourists hostage in the Saharadesert today freed all the captives, a spokesman for the President of Malisaid.
The 14 - nine Germans, four Swiss and a Dutchman - were freed late today, saida spokesman for Mali President Mr Amadou Toure, whose government hasbeen working on getting the group released.
The freed tourists were in government hands in the northern desert town ofGao, and would be flown to Bamako, the Mali capital, tomorrow, he said.He refused to discuss the hostages conditions, or answer any other questionsabout them.
Mali had put a government jet on standby in Gao, ready for the release.Germany, whose diplomats have been active in negotiations, also has readiedtwo air force jets, one of them a hospital airship.The hostages' saga began in mid-February, when kidnappers seized a total of 32Europeans in the Algerian desert.
In May, Algerian security forces freed 17 hostages during a raid on a deserthideout.
But 15 others remained captives - and were believed to have been taken toneighbouring Mali by their abductors.One of that group, a German woman, died of heat stroke and was buried by herabductors in June.
Algerian authorities say the kidnappers are linked to the Salafist Group forCall and Combat - which is generally seen as the less bloody of two main Islamicextremist movements behind a more than a decade of insurgency in Algeria.The Salafist group has been linked to the al Qaida terror organisation.
The tourists are believed to have been held on the orders of Salafist's NumberTwo leader, a former army paratrooper named Amari Saichi, who is known asAbderrazak the Paratrooper.Saichi deserted his military barracks for the Algerian bush in 1991, at thestart of the Islamic uprising.
He is believed to have been responsible for many attacks against the nation'smilitary. By some accounts, his group split from Algeria's larger Islamicinsurgency in protest of that group's many attacks on civilians.
German media had reported through the weekend that release of the Europeanswas imminent.
German television reported yesterday that the captors had freed the captivesand turned them over to intermediaries, but said the release hit a hitch whenthe group failed to turn up as expected at an airstrip in northern Mali.
AP