Austrian Hostage negotiator killed in Mali border region

Death brings negotiations to an impasse.

No word on who killed the negotiator. Anyone care to hazard a guess?

A mediator involved in negotiations to free two Austrian tourists kidnapped by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Tunisia is believed to have been killed. According to an Algerian source quoted in the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Tuareg mediator was murdered in a region on the border of Mali and Algeria. His death has reportedly brought a stalemate in negotiations between Austrian authorities and representatives of Abdel Hamid Abu Zayd, local head of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb.