Liberated captives appear healthy

COLOGNE, Germany - Fourteen freed European tourists said Wednesday that they were treated humanely by their Islamic extremist captors in the Sahara, where they survived searing heat and six months constantly on the move.

Some said the mental toughness that led them to explore the Sahara on motorbikes and in off-road vehicles early this year helped them keep up hope of regaining freedom. The nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutchman all set off to the remote area of southern Algeria without official guides and despite travel advisories from their governments.

The freed captives appeared healthy and in good spirits when they stepped down earlier Wednesday from a German military plane that brought them to Cologne from the West African nation of Mali.

They were among seven groups of 32 Europeans who were captured by Algerian Islamists beginning in February. The 17 others freed in an Algerian commando raid in May seemed more haggard and ragged after their ordeal.

Algeria has linked the kidnappers to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, one of two main Islamic extremist movements involved in a more than decadelong uprising in Algeria. It is believed to have ties to al-Qaida.

German deputy foreign minister Juergen Chrobog, who made three trips to Mali to help negotiate the hostages' release and accompanied them to Germany, described their physical and psychological health as "extraordinarily good."

Yet Wednesday's homecoming was overshadowed by the absence of German hostage Michaela Spitzer, a 45-year-old mother of two who succumbed to heatstroke in late June and was buried in the desert.

Fearing the Algerian military would launch another raid, the hostage-takers decided in June to push the captives on an arduous journey through the desert. The hostages moved constantly and didn't have enough water to withstand the searing temperatures.

Sadly, Chrobog said, conditions improved just after Spitzer's death.

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