Palestinian kidnaps, then frees, three US women

NABLUS, West Bank, Feb 20 (Reuters) A Palestinian man demanding medical expenses for a battle wound abducted three American women near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus today, and freed them an hour later, Palestinian sources said.

The women, all in their 20s, were unharmed, Kamal el-Sheikh, the governor of Nablus, told Reuters. No further details on their identities were released.

Sheikh said that ''a guy with personal demands'' had seized the women shortly after nightfall and held them in a village called Kufr Kalil.

The gunman freed them an hour later after negotiations with the abductor, Sheikh added, saying ''the girls are in our hands.'' A Palestinian source speaking on condition of anonymity said the kidnapper, wounded in fighting with Israeli forces during the six-year uprising in the occupied territory, had demanded medical care and a job in exchange for the women.

The women were the first foreigners abducted in the Palestinian territories since January 23 when a French diplomat and two bodyguards were held for a few hours.

More than 20 foreigners have been abducted by Palestinians in the past year, mostly in the Gaza Strip. All have been released, most of them within hours or days.

Security has fallen apart in Gaza and the West Bank amid a bitter power struggle between the ruling Hamas militant group and the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas.

More than 90 Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting since December, violence which has subsided since the groups reached a preliminary agreement to form a unity government in talks in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

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