The latest episode ended in the murder of four Saudi Arabian tourists hunting birds in the desert region of Tillaberi in western Niger last week, when bandits tried to kidnap them.

At least one of the Saudis shot at the assailants, believed to be part of a 30-member gang led by a local arms smuggler, triggering a gun battle in which two other Saudis were wounded.

The London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat Arabic-language newspaper reported that the brigands wanted to sell them to Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an elusive al-Qaida leader who operates in the region. French intelligence has dubbed him "the Uncatchable."

Belmokhtar is associated with the Algeria-based al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which has been behind most of the kidnappings in recent times as it seeks to expand southward into the "ungoverned spaces" of the Sahel belt and forge a regional jihadist organization.

Security authorities in Mauritania, one of al-Qaida's stamping grounds, reported that five Westerners were kidnapped there in November and December, and were believed to have been taken to neighboring Mali.

The whereabouts of the three Spanish aid workers and two Italians remain unknown.

"By any standard the kidnappings are lucrative," says Geoff Porter, director of the Middle East and Africa division of the Eurasia Group, a global political risk consultancy based in New York.

"By the local standards of the Sahara, the kidnappings are astoundingly lucrative."

AQIM has claimed responsibility for most of the kidnappings across the region over the past few years, including the three Spaniards and two Italians in Mauritania.

In most cases, the jihadists make political demands as well as ransoms that run into millions of dollars.

"One of the difficulties in the region is that the liberation of hostages by military means is really difficult," says Louis Caprioli, director of international security at GEOS, a risk management company.

"The number of kidnappings has risen since December 2008. There are several reasons for this. First, AQIM has intensified its presence in Mauritania, Algeria and in the whole Sahel region. …

"Another reason is that the security services in Mauritania, Mali and Niger do not have the equipment or the ability to fight these organizations."

Most ransoms are paid, although governments rarely admit this is so. "Many companies and individuals have kidnap-and-ransom insurance," Porter explained.

Belmokhtar was responsible for the first major abduction of Europeans. In 2003 he seized a group of 32 tourists in the Algerian Sahara. All were freed after several months in captivity when their governments paid a ransom, reportedly in excess of $10 million.

Other Europeans were also grabbed, as were many Algerians from wealthy families who secretly paid ransoms.

Statistics kept by regional security services for 2007 show that 115 people, mostly businessmen, were abducted by Islamist groups with billions of dinars paid in ransoms.

In 2006 Belmokhtar was behind the abduction of two Austrians and eventually released them for a ransom of some $4 million paid by Vienna and the release of several jihadists held in Mauritania, including a veteran fighter named Oussama el-Merdaci.

In June 2009 AQIM announced they had killed a 60-year-old British hostage, Edwin Dyer, on May 31, one day after their deadline for the release of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric considered to be close to Osama bin Laden who had been held in Britain since 2005.

Dyer was seized in Mali on Jan. 22, 2009, with a group of Europeans -- a Swiss couple and a German woman -- by Tuareg rebels who sold their captives to the jihadists. Dyer was the first British kidnap victim executed by al-Qaida outside Iraq.

The Swiss and German women were freed in April, along with two Canadian diplomats working for the United Nations abducted in Niger on Dec. 14, 2008. The Swiss man was released in July.

Western aid officials said ransoms had been paid. The Algerian media reported that the jihadists had demanded $14 million for Dyer and the Swiss man, although it was not clear if that was the amount the kidnappers received.

AQIM had also demanded the release of 20 of its men held in Mali. It said April 22 that four had been released.

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