Ex-soldier seeking compensation abducts three women before releasing them

A PALESTINIAN man demanding medical expenses for a battle wound abducted three American women near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, and freed them an hour later.

The women, all in their 20s, were unharmed, said Kamal el-Sheikh, the governor of Nablus. No further details on their identities were released.

Sheikh said that “a guy with personal demands” had seized the women shortly after nightfall and held them in a village called Kufr Kalil. The gunman freed them an hour later after negotiations with the abductor, Sheikh added, saying “the girls are in our hands”.