Al Qaeda trying to buy Britons in Ethiopia kidnap


By JASON LEWIS in London and BARBARA JONES in Addis Ababa - More by this author »

Last updated at 21:35pm on 10th March 2007


MI6 is involved in a race against time to prevent British diplomats kidnapped in Ethiopia being sold on to Al Qaeda terrorists.

Diplomatic and intelligence sources believe Osama Bin Laden's terror network had nothing to do with the abduction but is now attempting to get its hands on the five hostages.

A senior source told The Mail on Sunday Al Qaeda was prepared to offer a bounty to persuade the group behind the seizure to sell the prisoners.

• Video: Footage and interviews from the kidnap scene


"Al Qaeda have deep pockets and have a history of "buying" hostages taken by criminals and other groups particularly in Iraq,' the source said. "This abduction may have been opportunistic but we are worried Al Qaeda are making efforts to get involved."

The fear is Al Qaeda has identified the diplomats - who have not been officially named - as potentially high-value prisoners and wants to put them 'on trial'.

In the past, British hostages including engineer Ken Bigley and charity worker Margaret Hassan, seized by Islamic terrorists in Iraq, were forced to release video statements aimed at Tony Blair before their deaths were broadcast on the internet.

About ten British officials, thought to include an expert hostage negotiator, have been dispatched to Ethiopia to try to secure the group's release.

The hostages - three British men, an Anglo-Italian and a French woman - were on a tourist excursion to the remote Afar region of north-eastern Ethiopia when they were taken captive. Their Toyota Land Cruiser and Land Rover Discovery, which had diplomatic plates, were discovered riddled with bullet holes and grenade shrapnel. The 4x4s still contained the victims' luggage, as well as shoes and mobile phones.

Latest reports suggest the group was taken by rebel gunmen from the local Afar Revolutionary Democratic Union Front (ARDUF) and marched across the Ethiopian border into Eritrea.

The rebels want to draw world attention to the dispossession of their lands.

But the traditional Afar leader, Sultan Ali Mirha Hanfare, said: "If these people were being held by my people, I would know. Despite our enquiries, we still do not know where they are."

Meanwhile, Mahmouda Ahmed Gaas, leader of ARDUF until 1998, described how he had held Italian tourists in the searing heat of the Danakil Desert until their release was negotiated.

He said: "They suffered miserably. It was hellish for them of course. They had to live like us, like guerrillas, sleeping on the ground under a tree, eating goat's meat and rice. They all got dysentery and we had no medicine."




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