Hostage tells of night treks across desert with captors

The Europeans held hostage in the Sahara for two months by a terrorist group linked to al-Qa'ida were taken on forced night marches until their "clothes and shoes were in tatters", one of the freed hostages has revealed.

Gerd Wintersteller, an Austrian, spoke of his ordeal yesterday in the first interview given by the freed travellers. "Our captors were Islamic terrorists. They prayed every day and told us that they wanted to overthrow the Algerian government and turn the country into an Islamic state," he told the German television channel RTL.

He was among 17 Europeans who were flown home on Wednesday after being freed by Algerian commandos in a fierce gun battle.

Mr Wintersteller refused to give details of the commandos' assault for fear of prejudicing attempts to free 15 other Europeans – 10 Germans, four Swiss and a Dutchman – who are still being held in Algeria.

He said that after he was taken hostage in mid-March with nine other Austrians, six Germans and a Swede, his captors did everything to avoid being tracked down by the army. "We were on the run for several days. We were driven through the night in vehicles without lights. The terrain was so rough and stony that I thought the vehicles would not stand up to it," he said.

During the two months of captivity, the group was shifted from "one ravine to another" in mountainous country criss-crossed with dried-up river gorges. "The intervals during which we were allowed to rest became shorter and shorter. Our captors sensed that the military was after them. Every night we were taken on a forced march. Our clothes and our shoes were in tatters," Mr Wintersteller said. "Our physical strength was exhausted."

Mr Wintersteller said his captors had demanded ransom from the Algerian authorities, but he said he was not aware that they had made any political demands. The Algerian authorities yesterday confirmed initial reports that the Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC) had kidnapped the first group of tourists and was still holding the remaining 15.

Algerian military sources said they believed the remaining hostages were hidden in a labyrinth of caves near the Sahara desert town of Illizi, about 700 miles south of Algiers. They said the caves were difficult to reach and that they had decided against storming the hide-out because they feared the hostage-takers had become nervous after the first group was freed.

Initial reports said nine of the hostage-takers were killed during Tuesday's gun battle. Those were contradicted by the Algerian newspaper Al Watan, which has close links to the Algerian military. It reported that one commando was killed in the raid, as were four of the hostage-takers. Five hostage-takers were captured.

The GSPC split with Algeria's main armed Islamic resistance group, the GIA, in 1998. German Federal Criminal Bureau files show the group's leader to be Emir Hassan Hattab, a former army parachute regiment officer. The Algerian authorities claim that Mr Hattab held several telephone conversations with Osama bin Laden before and after 11 September 2001.

Western diplomats in Algeria suggested that the GSPC was in disarray. "The entire operation was well organised at the start, but it has now fallen apart," one source was quoted as saying. "It may well be that the GSPC group holding the last of the hostages is without support," the source added.