Algeria recovers Egyptian seized by Qaeda-official

ALGIERS, Sep 9 (Reuters) Algerian security forces have secured the release of an Egyptian engineer who was held hostage for more than three months by al Qaeda's north Africa wing, official media reported today.

Amdjad Wahba, a 26-year-old engineer at Egyptian industrial group Orascom, was freed on Thursday after being kidnapped by gunmen on May 27 in the troubled Kabylie region east of Algiers, the official APS news agency said.

The release was made possible ''following a specific operation that required two months of preparation'', APS added, citing security sources.

''With the aim of preserving his life, no action was taken until the moment when conditions allowed his recovery,'' it quoted the sources as saying.

The engineer, who was in good health, had been held by members of the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which had demanded ''billions in ransom'', APS said.

It gave no details as to how the raid was carried out or whether there were killings among the kidnappers.

Kidnappings of Algerians including children are common in the Kabylie area and newspaper reports say they are normally carried out by criminal gangs or by Islamist rebels for ransom.

Kidnappings of foreigners are rare. Few foreigners are based in mountainous Kabylie because of its poor security.

Several hundred Islamist guerrillas remain at large in and around the region due to criminal and family links and the protection offered by remote terrain.

Experts believe most belong to the local Qaeda wing, which claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks that killed 57 people in the past four days.

Oil exporter Algeria plunged into conflict in 1992 after the then military-backed authorities scrapped a parliamentary election that radical Islamists were set to win.

The violence cost up to 200,000 lives and billion in economic losses due to a sabotage campaign by Islamic rebels.

Reuters PDT DB2115