Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — In an unprecedented operation, Al Qaida abducted Chinese
nationals in Egypt in an attempt to win the release of an Islamist
insurgency commander.

[China said on Feb. 1 that the abducted workers have been released, state media reported. China’s Xinhua news agency quoted the Chinese embassy in Egypt in its brief dispatch, but gave no other details.]

Officials said Al Qaida-aligned gunmen stormed a bus that was
transporting 25 Chinese laborers to an Egyptian Army factory in the Sinai Peninsula. They said the Chinese were forced off the bus at gunpoint and driven away in four-wheel drive vehicles to an unknown location on Jan. 31.

This marked the first abduction by Al Qaida operatives of Chinese
nationals in Egypt. China has long been regarded as a strategic ally of Egypt and provides technology and skilled labor to the Arab military.

Officials said the abduction was claimed to have been staged by Al Qaida Organization in the Sinai Peninsula, which announced its establishment in mid-2011. They said the insurgency group was demanding the release of five
Bedouins imprisoned on charges of attacking hotels in Sharm e-Sheik and Taba
in 2004 and 2005.

The abduction is said to have taken place in Lehfen in northern Sinai,
where the Egyptian Army operates a cement factory. The Chinese captives were
described as engineers and technicians.

Officials said Al Qaida networks, including Tawhid W’al Jihad, were
recruiting hundreds of young Bedouins for attacks throughout Sinai. They
said the operations included the bombing of the Arab Gas Pipeline as well as
ports and hotels in the peninsula.

  Al Qaida kidnaps bus load of Chinese laborers in Egypt, Al Qaida Organization in the Sinai Peninsula, Arab Gas Pipeline, Bedouins, Egyptian Army, Lehfen, Sharm-e Sheik, Taba, Tawhid W’al Jihad