Egypt: 2 US kidnapped tourists and guide are freed

GlobalPost

Kidnappers have released two Americans and their Egyptian guide after holding them for three days, CNN reported.

"They are at security headquarters with us now, in good condition. The negotiations succeeded, but we did not give in to the kidnappers' demands," Gen. Ahmed Bakr, head of security in northern Sinai, told the Cable News Network.

More from GlobalPost: Sinai, Egypt: American hostage-taker threatens fresh abductions- report

The Associated Press said the three were abducted by a Bedouin in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last week were released Monday after negotiations with local tribal leaders.

Rev. Michel Louis, 61, and 39-year-old Lissa Alphonse, from Boston, along with their guide, Haytham Ragab, were on a bus when they were captured by a Bedouin man demanding the release of his uncle, said Agence-France Presse.

Michel Louis, the pastor of a Pentecostal church in Boston, told CNN, "we are heading directly to Israel to join the members of our church as soon as we get our passports sent to us from Cairo."

"I tell my family I am in good health and in good spirits, but I have not taken my medicine since Friday, so I am a little tired," he said.

More from GlobalPost: Security in the Sinai Peninsula is getting worse

Hostage-taking in the area has been on the rise in recent months.  In February two Americans were taken captive, then released shortly, Reuters reported.

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