Militants release Egyptian hostages

Seven members of the Egyptian security forces kidnapped by Islamist militants in Sinai last week were released on Wednesday, ending a crisis that has highlighted lawlessness in the desert peninsula bordering Israel.

Security sources said the men were freed following talks mediated by Bedouin tribal leaders. They were handed over to the army in an area south of Rafah, a town straddling the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The kidnappers had demanded the release of members of an Islamist group convicted last September of carrying out a series of attacks in North Sinai in 2011 that killed seven people.

The abduction pointed to the threat still posed by radical Islamists who expanded into a security vacuum in Sinai that the state has struggled to fill since an uprising swept Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011. The groups have launched attacks on Israel and targets in North Sinai.

"I salute the commanders and soldiers of the armed forces, the police, the general and military intelligence," President Mohammed Morsi wrote on Twitter after the men's release.

A security official in Sinai and a Bedouin sheikh involved in the mediation said the kidnappers' demands had not been met. The militants had decided to release the men because they feared a confrontation with the armed forces, they said.

The crisis had piled domestic pressure on the Islamist president to act and enraged Egyptian security forces who have closed border crossings to Gaza and Israel in protest. Earlier this week, Morsi said there would be no negotiations with militants he described as criminals.

The conscripts, seized at gunpoint last week as they were returning from a leave of absence, arrived in Cairo following a joint army and police sweep of Sinai that led to their release, the army said.

The three policemen and four soldiers saluted and embraced Morsi as they stepped out of the plane that transported them from Sinai, in a formal ceremony attended by dozens of top level officials.

"The criminals must be brought to justice. Those who violate the law must be held accountable. The law will prevail," Morsi said in a statement aired on state television after the ceremony.

Domestic pressure

Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is a major route for drug smuggling and human trafficking.

Morsi appealed to residents to hand in their arms.

"Weapons should only be with the authorities. Weapons should only be with the state. Those who have weapons should hand them in," he said.

Morsi said developing Sinai was a top priority, stressing his eagerness to see Sinai residents achieve "their full rights ... as the rest of Egyptians".

Bedouin activists have long complained of the government's neglect of their region, saying they have been treated as second-class citizens ever since Israel handed back the peninsula it seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

Egyptian troops and policemen had begun sweeps of North Sinai on Tuesday.

The kidnappers were heavily armed with SAM anti-aircraft missiles and heavy machine guns, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said.

The authorities had raised the state of alert in hospitals and emergency services ahead of a possible showdown with the kidnappers.

The capture of the security personnel piled pressure on Morsi, the Islamist president whose 11-month rule has been marked by violent clashes, political turmoil and a devastating economic crisis.

Tension has been running high in the lawless peninsula since the kidnapping, which was followed by two attacks on or near police camps in North Sinai.

Reuters-AFP

(China Daily 05/23/2013 page11)