16 July 2012 Last updated at 13:03 ET

US hostages freed by Bedouin in Egypt's Sinai

Two Americans and their Egyptian translator have been released three days after they were abducted in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

Egyptian security officials say Reverend Michel Louis, Lisa Alphonse and Haytham Ragab were freed by hostage-taker Jirmy Abu-Masuh.

The three were taken off a bus on a road between Cairo and Mount Sinai on Friday during a church trip.

It was the latest abduction to take place in the area over the past year.

So far, kidnapped tourists have been released within days.

The tourists were freed "after successful negotiations with the mediation of sheikhs and senior tribal figures", northern Sinai's head of security, Ahmed Bakr, told Reuters news agency.

'Lamb dinners'

Mr Abu-Masuh originally said he would hold the hostages until his uncle was released from prison. His uncle is said by officials to be serving a 15-day sentence for drug possession.

But Mr Abu-Masuh, a member of a Bedouin tribe, alleges his relative was arrested for refusing to pay police a bribe.

He told the Associated Press on Monday that he freed the hostages on Monday after officials promised they would work on releasing his uncle from prison, adding the Americans had nothing to do with his dispute with police.

Two intelligence officers went to meet with Mr Abu-Masuh on Friday and on Sunday, the hostage-taker told the Associated Press. He relocated his three hostages during those meetings.

Earlier, a senior Egyptian told US media that the negotiators had rejected his demand.

Mr Louis, pastor at a Haitian-American church in Massachusetts, had ventured into Egypt while on a yearly missionary trip to Israel, according to his son. Ms Alphonse is a parishioner at another American church.

"We're in good spirits because we know the God that we serve is in control of the matter," Jean Louis said during a press conference before his father was released.

The younger Mr Louis said they were concerned that their father did not have medicine to treat his diabetes, which he left on the bus.

Mr Abu-Mashu told the AP that security officials would have to help get the medicine to Mr Louis, and but said he was treating them as "guests" by giving them tea, coffee and a traditional lamb dinner.