EL-ARISH, Egypt – Bedouin tribesmen abducted two female American tourists and their Egyptian guide at gunpoint Friday but released them several hours later after negotiations with tribal leaders in the Sinai Peninsula, the region’s security chief said.
The brazen daylight abduction along a busy highway was a new blow to Egypt’s vital tourism industry, which has been heavily battered by the unrest following last year’s uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.
Tensions across the nation have spiked since a deadly soccer riot on Wednesday that has spiraled into a political crisis and fueled anger at the ruling military council after protesters accused police of standing by and allowing the bloodshed.
Also Friday, four masked gunmen stopped the vehicle of two Italians working for a local food factory in the nearby city of Suez, taking their car, more than 10,000 euros ($13,000) and their laptops, the director of the company Mohammed Antar said. The attackers let the Italians go.
Maj. Gen. Mohammed Naguib, the head of security for southern Sinai, said the three were snatched from a minivan after it was intercepted at gunpoint while carrying the group from St. Catherine’s Monastery to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. The attackers, who
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