This is the first Westerner to be kidnapped since 2003 in this area: an Italian tourist traveling alone with a driver and a guide was removed in southern Algeria early Wednesday evening, sources said on Friday safe the region. The woman, aged 56, whose identity was not revealed, was kidnapped about 18 pm in Alidena area, 130 km south of Djanet, the main town in southeastern Algeria.
His driver and guide were then released, the sources said, and interrogated. They have said the kidnappers, "fourteen men were traveling in two Toyota Station. It is unclear to what destination the tourist was driving. She had contacted a travel agency located in Djanet, in 2300 km of Algiers near the border with Libya, an oasis populated mainly by Tuaregs Azjar.
The Arabic daily El Chourouk said, citing its own sources, it would have been taken to neighboring Niger. According to the Algerian APS agency, the kidnappers have allowed their hostages to use their mobile phone to alert the boss of the agency that arranged his journey to Djanet and immediately alerted the security services.
Since the announcement of the kidnapping, the army and gendarmerie have been on alert in search of vehicles. In Rome, the Foreign Ministry has merely stated that "investigations were underway" on this information. The Sahel region has become the stronghold of the Islamist Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for several kidnappings of Westerners in the neighboring countries of Algeria for several years.
The North African branch of al-Qaeda operates in a vast desert area on the border of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where she is guilty of bombings, abductions, mostly of Western nationals, and various trades. 
His driver and guide were then released, the sources said, and interrogated. They have said the kidnappers, "fourteen men were traveling in two Toyota Station. It is unclear to what destination the tourist was driving. She had contacted a travel agency located in Djanet, in 2300 km of Algiers near the border with Libya, an oasis populated mainly by Tuaregs Azjar.
The Arabic daily El Chourouk said, citing its own sources, it would have been taken to neighboring Niger. According to the Algerian APS agency, the kidnappers have allowed their hostages to use their mobile phone to alert the boss of the agency that arranged his journey to Djanet and immediately alerted the security services.
Since the announcement of the kidnapping, the army and gendarmerie have been on alert in search of vehicles. In Rome, the Foreign Ministry has merely stated that "investigations were underway" on this information. The Sahel region has become the stronghold of the Islamist Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for several kidnappings of Westerners in the neighboring countries of Algeria for several years.
The North African branch of al-Qaeda operates in a vast desert area on the border of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where she is guilty of bombings, abductions, mostly of Western nationals, and various trades.
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