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Kidnappers demand prisoner swap for Austrians

Austria's Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday it had received an ultimatum from al-Qaeda's North Africa branch demanding the release of prisoners in Tunisia and Algeria in exchange for freeing two Austrian tourists it claims to have kidnapped.

The kidnappers had contacted the Austrian government and "made some political demands," Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said.

"But they are demands that cannot be met by the Austrian side because they concern the release of prisoners in Tunisia and Algeria," the spokesman said.

"Nevertheless, every effort is being made to facilitate the safe return of the [Austrian] hostages to Austria," Launsky-Tieffenthal said.

The ultimatum ran from midnight on Thursday until midnight tomorrow, he said.

Launsky-Tieffenthal was confirming a report by the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which had said that al-Qaeda's North Africa branch gave Austrian authorities three days to comply with its ultimatum starting at midnight on Thursday.

The al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb -- an Algerian-based off-shoot of al-Qaeda -- said it had abducted the pair in Tunisia on Feb. 22.

"Consequently, the state of Austria is responsible for the lives of the two hostages in the event of the expiration of the time period and not responding to our demands," the organization said in a communique issued to jihadist forums, SITE said.

The message and Austrian press reports have named the two as Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 44.

Ebner, a desert expert, phoned his son on Feb. 18 from Tataouine in southeast Tunisia and said he would call again on Feb. 25, but never did.

The family alerted authorities who took the case to Interpol.

The message from al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb included six images of Ebner and a woman whose face was obscured, SITE said.

On Tuesday the Arabic daily Annahar said the two Austrians had been taken by their captors to northern Mali.

"The kidnappers have managed to get into the Sahel, crossing Algeria and Libya to get back to their rear base in Mali," Annahar reported on its Web site, citing several unnamed Algerian sources.

Annahar chief Anis Rahmani said that according to his sources, Algeria's army had "channelled the kidnappers towards Libya and Mali, where the possibility of negotiations with the Austrian authorities for an eventual release of the hostages is greater."
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