Algiers - The two Austrian tourists being held by a North African terrorist group are in good health, the spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry said in an interview published Tuesday in the Algerian daily Annahar. "We are in permanent contact with the group of kidnappers despite the end of the second ultimatum, and we know that the hostages are in good health," Peter Launsky told the newspaper.
According to the newspaper, the kidnappers, who are associated with the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, extended their second deadline for an accord by three days, or until midnight of March 27.
The kidnappers have demanded the release of a number of terrorists imprisoned in Algeria and Tunisia before they would agree to liberate Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 42.
Ebner and Kloiber disappeared February 18 while on a desert tour in southern Tunisia. They are now believed to be held in Mali.
An Algerian security official told Annahar that an official of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb urged the kidnappers to insist on the release of the prisoners because a exchange for ransom would make them look like simple desert bandits.
Austrian officials have repeatedly denied that they were considering paying a ransom for the release of Ebner and Kloiber.
