May 15, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424

ALGIERS, May 14: Algerian troops stormed a militant hideout deep in the Sahara and freed unharmed 17 European adventure tourists held for two months, but were still searching for 15 others, the army said on Wednesday.

“After a brief assault against the terrorists...the group of 17 detained tourists...were freed, healthy and unharmed,” the national armed forces said in a statement.

“Intense searches are still taking place in southern Algeria to find and free the foreign tourists held by a second terrorist group,” the Interior Ministry said — but a military source said the search in tough terrain may not yet have begun.

The attack freed 10 Austrians, six Germans and a Swede held by the GSPC near the town of Tamanrasset, the armed forces said.

They were taken to Algiers on Tuesday evening for a check-up at a military hospital and on Wednesday flew home — smiling, showing victory signs with their fingers and some carrying flowers as they left. They appeared generally healthy.

The daily El Watan, citing security sources, said Tuesday’s shootout lasted several hours and the 100 special forces troops carrying out the operation killed at least nine armed militants.

Diplomats said they were worried about 10 Germans, four Swiss and one Dutchman still believed allegedly held by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) near the southern Tuareg city of Illizi, some 1,200kms south of the capital, Algiers.

“The freed tourists were freed by force, not by negotiation, which means the outlook for the rest isn’t good,” one diplomat said. “The forces will have had to act quickly to free them.”

“No one was badly injured,” said a German embassy spokesman in Algiers. Another diplomat said the ordeal had been very tough mentally. “Not a nice holiday trip,” the official said.

“We dare hope the rest of the hostages are freed and can rejoin the first group alive,” Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem told national radio at the airport.

The GSPC, accused of links to the Al Qaeda network, has been fighting to create an Islamic state and rejected a 1999 amnesty offer by the Algerian authorities.—Reuters