CAIRO, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Three South Korean tourists and a guide were kidnapped Friday in the Sinai, Egyptian officials said.
The abductions came a day after a Bedouin tribe in the region kidnapped 17 Egyptian border police officers, bikyamasr.com reported.
The tourists and the guide were taken off a bus that was stopped by armed men in Wadi Firan, said Maj. Gen. Muhammad Najib, who is in charge of security in South Sinai. Officials told the Palestinian Ma'an news agency the kidnappers may be planning to use them to negotiate the release of Bedouins charged with drug and weapons smuggling.
The border police were abducted after a tribal member was killed, bikyamasr said. A Bedouin source told the newspaper the men are unhurt and "are being held to demand justice for the killing of one of our own."
"We Bedouin have been shoved and killed and pushed away from the future of this country and we will not stand for it," said the man, who did not want his name used.
