Nineteen people, including 11 foreign tourists, who had been kidnapped 10 days ago were freed today unharmed in a pre-dawn raid by the Egyptian special forces.

Zeinobia, at Egyptian Chronicles, dedicated a post here to the Egyptian special forces fir their heroic role in the rescue.

I do not know if anyone of them will ever read this but thank you for bringing joy, faith and hope to people who are really missing a lot these days, thank you for standing up as usual as expected when it needed.

Those kidnapped included 11 foreign tourists – five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian – who were snatched in a remote border region of Egypt, which has cave paintings thought to be about 10,000 years old. The region is accessible by desert vehicle from the conflict zones of Darfur and eastern Chad.

Meanwhile, The Arabist links to news sources and announces:

The word is the 19 hostages are now free and healthy.

Writing in The Skeptic, Elijah Zarwan earlier reported:

Sudanese government officials are telling reporters that the Sudanese forces killed six men accused of complicity in the abduction of 11 tourists and eight Egyptian guides after a high-speed chase through the desert. The Sudanese say they captured two people involved, who said that the hostages had been moved to Chad. If all the reports coming out have been true, then the hostages have been moved from Egypt, across the border to Sudan, across the border into Libya, then back into Sudan, and again across the border into Chad.