North Africa al Qaida Holding 2 Austrian Tourists

A tape from al Qaida, claiming the group kidnapped two Austrian tourists in Tunisia aired on al Jazeera. Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North Africa wing was holding two Austrian tourists it had abducted in Tunisia on February 22, Al Jazeera television reported on Monday.

It aired a recording in which a man identified as Salah Abou-Mohammad, a spokesman of al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, said that the tourists, a man and a woman, were in a good condition.

"The spokesman said in the tape that the group will announce its conditions for the release of the two tourists at a later stage," a Jazeera presenter said. The channel did not broadcast that part of the recording.

Abou-Mohammad identified the tourists as a nurse and a consultant, giving their names with an Arabic accent as Andrea Kobler and Wolfgang Edner.