Gunmen kidnap aid worker in Gaza

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http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/30/gaza.kidnap/

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A Spanish charity worker was abducted Monday in Gaza, according to Palestinian security sources and the organization the man works for.

Roberto Vila, 34, was forced into a car in southern Gaza and driven away.

Cooperation Assembly for Peace, which goes by its Spanish acronym ACPP, said Vila is its chief representative in the region.

Vila, who lives in Ramallah, was visiting an ACPP project in Gaza when he was kidnapped, group spokesman Enrique Miravillas said. Vila was with Celine Gagne, a French member of the group, but the gunmen took only Vila.

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1. More Info

http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/international-news/gaza-strip-palestinian-gunmen-abduct-spanish-aid-worker-?itemId=B24_18081&cl=%2Feitb24%2Finternacional&idioma=en

Celine Gagne, a fellow worker, said she and Vila were on their way out of the town of Khan Younis after visiting a project for handicapped children when three or four men carrying Kalashnikov rifles stopped them.

Palestinian gunmen on Monday abducted a Spanish aid worker in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in a wave of kidnappings of foreigners, Palestinian officials and colleagues of the man said.

The hostage was identified by colleagues as Roberto Vila, a 34-year-old aid worker with the Cooperation Assembly for Peace, a Spanish charity group.

Celine Gagne, a fellow worker, said she and Vila were on their way out of the town of Khan Younis after visiting a project for handicapped children when three or four men carrying Kalashnikov rifles stopped them. She said she and Vila had arrived in Gaza earlier in the day.

"They asked me to stay behind,'' she said.

The gunmen then forced Vila into their car and sped away, she said.

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2. Haaretz News Flash:

PA official: Spanish aid worker released unharmed by Gaza abductors (Reuters)

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3. Full article link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061030/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_kidnapping

Spanish kidnap victim released in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Spanish aid worker kidnapped in Gaza on Monday afternoon was released hours later, Palestinian security officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said Roberto Vila, a 34-year-old aid worker with the Cooperation Assembly for Peace, a Spanish charity group, had been released unconditionally, and that the identity of the kidnappers was still unknown.

Palestinian gunmen on Monday abducted Vila in the central
Gaza Strip, the latest in a wave of kidnappings of foreigners, Palestinian officials and colleagues of the man said.