Italian Woman Abducted in Southern Algeria’s Sahara

An Italian woman tourist traveling with a driver and a tour guide has been kidnapped in the Sahara desert region of, security sources said Friday.

The 56-year-old Italian who has not been identified was abducted Wednesday around 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) in Alidem, an area 130 kilometers south of Djanet, the main town in southeastern Algeria, the security official in the region contacted by Agence France Presse said.

The driver and guide who accompanied her were freed following the abduction and told investigators they had been kidnapped by "14 men riding in two Toyota trucks.”

The army, which controls the desert region of Alidem, has been put on alert and is searching for the vehicles but the abductors have probably already left the country, the sources said.

The Ech-Chorouk newspaper said Friday the woman, who was on a month-long vacation to the region, had probably already been taken by her abductors to neighboring Niger.

The newspaper said a local travel agency had told security services about the kidnapping in an area where an offshoot of the al-Qaida network is known to operate, targeting foreign visitors over the past several years.

In 2003, between February and mid-March, 32 European tourists belonging to several different groups were abducted in the Algerian Sahara which covers an area of around two million square kilometers (770,000 square miles).

Many were held for months and the last captive was released in Mali in August of that year.