French, Malagasy, Togolese hostages of Al-Qaeda freed

Three nationals of France, Madagascar and Togo taken hostage by an Al-Qaeda regional offshoot in Niger in September have been released, a security source said Friday.

The three were "freed during the night between Thursday and Friday on Niger territory," the source told AFP.

"They were moved to Niamey by Niger authorities," the source said, without giving details of the release nor the fate of the remaining hostages. The French presidency confirmed their release and said they were all in good health.

A total of seven hostages including four other French nationals -- an executive of French nuclear giant Areva among them -- were seized in September in the west African country's uranium-mining town of Arlit and later taken into Mali.

But they were later scattered and moved outside the country.

One of the freed hostages, Frenchwoman Francoise Larribe, was suffering from cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment shortly before she was abducted, her family said.

The group's abduction was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), whose leader warned France to pull its troops out of Afghanistan if it wanted to see the safe return of the French hostages.

The north African branch of Al-Qaeda operates in a vast desert area across Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where it carries out attacks, trafficking and kidnapping of Westerners.

In January AQIM kidnapped two 25-year-old Frenchmen from a restaurant in Niamey, but the victims were killed in Mali after a failed attempt by French special forces to rescue them.

And earlier this month the Al-Qaeda group snatched a 53-year-old Italian tourist in Algeria.

In a tape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television last month, Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden said the release of French hostages depended on a pullout of French soldiers from Afghanistan and warned Paris of a "high price" for its policies.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy retorted that each murder of a French citizen by militants only reinforced his determination to fight terrorism.