Thursday, May 31, 2012

German hostage kidnapped by al Qaeda in northern Nigeria killed during rescue

His kidnappers were killed as well.
ABUJA (Reuters) - A German man held hostage in northern Nigeria by a group linked to al Qaeda has been killed during an attempt by Nigerian forces to rescue him, a witness and security sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Edgar Fritz Raupach was kidnapped in the north's main city Kano in January. A group claiming to be al Qaeda's north African wing said in March it was holding him and demanded the release of a Muslim woman imprisoned in Germany in exchange for freeing him.

"I saw some corpse inside the military vehicle after the raid at Danbare Quarters close to the new site campus of Bayero University," Ibrahim Mohammed, a civil servant in Kano told Reuters by phone.

"It is not only the German that was inside the vehicle but that of the kidnappers too, the military blocked all entrance to the area during the raid."

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