DUBAI, Feb 19 Al Qaeda's wing in North Africa published photographs on the internet on Thursday of four of six western hostages it says it has in its custody.

Earlier this week Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed in an audio tape aired on Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera that it had a Canadian UN envoy and his aide and four western tourists who were kidnapped in the West African Sahara in December.

A posting on Islamist websites on Thursday showed three separate images of what it said were a Swiss couple, a German woman and a British man, surrounded by men bearing rifles.—Reuters