Spain evacuates aid workers from Algeria

MADRID, July 29 (UPI) -- Spain said it was pulling its aid workers out of Algeria due to growing instability along the western border with Mali.

A dozen Spaniards along with an Italian and two French nationals were being flown to Madrid Sunday by military aircraft, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo said.

The aid workers had been based at the refugee camps in Tindouf, an area of western Algeria near the border with restive Mali, ThinkSpain said.

Northern Mali was recently taken over by Tuareg rebels and radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida following a coup in March, ThinkSpain said. Garcia Margallo said the region had since become "a platform for terrorism" that made the Algerian camps too dangerous.