Tourists' Suspected Kidnapper Arrested

Amar Saifi, who has been accused of kidnapping 32 European vacationers last year, was taken into custody by Algerian police, the country's interior ministry announced Thursday. Saifi, also known as Abderrezak the Para, was extradited from Libya to Algeria Wednesday, authorities there said. Saifi was considered the number two of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the strongest of the armed Islamic groups fighting the Algerian government and thought to have links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. He allegedly led the commandos who kidnapped the mainly German tourists last year in the Algerian Sahara, and has been the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Germany since Sept. 2003. One of the tourists died of heat exhaustion while in captivity.