[Maghrebia] The Spanish government on Wednesday (December 30th) confirmed that one of the three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was seriously wounded during his abduction. On Tuesday, Spanish daily El Pais reported that 45-year-old Albert Vilalta was shot three times in his leg on November 29th while trying to flee an ambush on the Nouadhibou-Nouakchott road. The government has sent medicine "through open channels with tribal leaders in northern Mali", the newspaper added.
While al-Qaeda released a photograph earlier this week of an Italian couple abducted December 18th near the Mauritania-Mali border, the terror group has given no "sign of life" regarding the fate of the three Spanish hostages. "Why would AQIM diffuse a picture of the Italians and not the Spanish hostages captured a month earlier?" Journal Tahalil asked on Tuesday.
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