Al Qaeda gives 3-day ultimatum on Austria hostages

By Inal Ersan

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North African wing threatened on Thursday to kill two Austrian hostages it had abducted in Tunisia if Vienna failed to secure the release of some of the group's members jailed in Tunisia and Algeria.

The ultimatum starts at midnight on Thursday, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site.

"Austria would be responsible for the lives of the two hostages should the deadline come and our demands are not met," it said.

"As you care for the safety of your citizens, we care to free our brothers who face the ugliest forms of torture at the prisons of Tunisa ... and Algeria," it said.

"We ask the families of the hostages and the Austrian public opinion to press their country's (government) to meet the demands of the mujahideen to preserve the lives of the two tourists," it added.

The demands and a list of the names of the group's prisoners were sent to Vienna through unidentified mediators, it said in the posting, which had pictures of the hostages identified in Austrian media as Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik confirmed that Vienna had received the demands and said efforts were being made to secure the release of the hostages.

"They (kidnappers) have taken up contact with the Austrian side. Political demands have been made whose fulfillment do not fall within the responsibility of the Austrian side," she said in a statement.