Austrian officials are examining a fresh message from the suspected kidnappers of two tourists whose abduction has been claimed by the north African wing of al-Qaeda. Vienna's Foreign Ministry said the information posted on a website included up-to-date passport details for the couple, identified by relatives as 51-year-old tax consultant Wolfgang Ebner and his companion, 43-year-old Andrea Kloiber. They disappeared while on holiday in Tunisia last month. Reports since then claim they have been taken to a hideout in either Mali or Algeria.The passport details are evidence of an abduction but not proof according to Austria's Interior Minister Rudolf Gollia who said: "The document numbers were found to be consistent with those of the two Austrians. But of course, we do not know where that data actually came from and how the senders of the posted message obtained this information."
The group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, linked its action to the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza. But analysts think the aim could be to raise money by negotiating the couple's release.