Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Bedouin insurgents abducted and briefly held an officer of the U.S.-led
Multinational Force and Observers in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Officials said insurgents believed aligned with Al Qaida abducted a Hungarian
member of the MFO near the northern provincial capital of El Arish. MFO officials said the officer was released after being held for a brief time.

The officials said the officer was seized as he rode in a bus from El Arish to Cairo on April 11.

“The apparent motive was to bargain with Egyptian authorities regarding
release of the son of one of the group who we are informed recently had been arrested,” MFO said.

In a statement on April 11, MFO said the Hungarian officer was removed
from a charter bus in El Gorah on the main coastal road to the Suez Canal.
The agency said security forces returned the MFO officer to the bus by 3
p.m.

“Other MFO passengers on the bus were unharmed and were guarded by
Egyptian security until the Hungarian officer rejoined the group, and the
bus proceeded under escort to Cairo,” MFO said.

In May 2012, 10 members of the Fijian contingent were seized by Bedouin
tribesman as part of a series of attacks on MFO.

MFO, a force of 1,800 staffers, most of whom are Americans, has bolstered security amid the threat
of Al Qaida-aligned and Palestinian insurgents.

“The MFO is grateful to the Egyptian Liaison Agency with International
Organizations and other Egyptian security agencies that assisted in the
swift resolution of this incident and the safe return of our colleague,” the statement said.

  El Arish, Multinational Force and Observers, Multinational Force officer abducted by Bedouin insurgents in Sinai