Bedouins holding hostages in Sinai resort
Egyptian media outlets report that 70 armed Bedouins laid siege to a resort village, demanding four million Egyptian Liras for employees' release
Egyptian media outlets have reported Sunday that a group of armed Bedouins are laying siege to a Sinai Peninsula resort and holding the employees hostage.
According to the reports, the kidnappers are demanding four million Egyptian Liras (about NIS 2.5 million) in exchange for the release of the employees and for refraining from destroying the resort facilities.
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The affair began on Saturday when 70 Bedouin tribe members form the city of Ras Sudar laid siege on the resort village, located between Taba and Nuweiba.
The resort village manager and its employees were taken hostage by the assailants, who demanded to receive the ransom by Sunday night.
Bedouins in Egypt claimed Hosni Mubarak's regime has discriminated them for many years. After his ousting, the tribesmen began demanding greater representation in the Egyptian parliament and threatened to use force in order to achieve their political goals.
A CNN report last week quoted a Bedouin leader as saying that the "elections were forged and we are being oppressed once again; we are the 'Jews of Sinai,'" he said, adding that the Bedouins will launch their own revolution "not in Tahrir Square, but in Sinai."
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