16/11/2008
A new report prepared by Algerian investigators into the kidnapping of the recently released Austrian hostages implicates more than 30 terrorists, including Libyans, Malians, Mauritanians, and Algerians, El Khabar reported on Sunday (November 16th). Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51, were abducted in the Tunisian Sahara last February by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and held in a remote desert area in Mali. The alleged mastermind of the operation, Abdelhamid Abu Zaid, led a terrorist group in the southern Algerian province of El Oued which reportedly planned the abduction of 10 foreigners.