Spain probing "exact location" of Mauritania hostages (Roundup)

Dec 2, 2009, 12:40 GMT

Nouakchott/Madrid - Three Spanish aid workers abducted Sunday night have been moved to Mali, a high-ranking Mauritanian official said Wednesday.

The Spanish government meanwhile said it was trying to determine 'the exact location' where the hostages were being held.

The abductors were criminals cooperating with the North African branch of al-Qaeda, the official told the German Press Agency dpa on condition of anonymity.

Gangs trafficking in drugs and migrants had moved into abductions as a source of income, the official explained. The Mauritanian and Western Saharan coast is a popular transit route for African migrants trying to reach Spain.

The Spanish government has consistently said it could not confirm reports that the aid workers - two men and a woman - had been located.

But in a communique issued Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said the government was working to 'determine the exact location of those abducted,' without giving more details.

Spain was in contact 'at all levels' with the authorities of Mauritania and other countries in the region, the ministry said.

Mauritanian security officials on Tuesday told dpa and a representative of the aid organization Barcelona Accio Solidaria that the aid workers had been found.

The Spanish daily El Mundo on Wednesday quoted 'reliable sources' as saying the Spanish secret service had located the hostages, but that the Spanish government had not been in touch with the abductors. The sources denied media reports that the hostages had been released.

Mauritanian security forces on Monday launched a massive manhunt for the aid workers who were abducted the previous night at gunpoint as they were returning to Nouakchott from the port city of Nouadhibou, near the border with Western Sahara.

The Spaniards were in the last vehicle of an aid convoy.