COLOGNE, GERMANY ? Weary but safe, 17 European hostages — freed when Algerian commandos raided the Sahara Desert hideout of al-Qaida-linked terrorists — returned to a bittersweet welcome Wednesday marred by concern for 15 other tourists still held captive.

Six Germans and one Swede arrived in Cologne on a German military plane accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Juergen Chrobog, as well as a doctor and psychologist. Just minutes later, a plane carrying 10 Austrians landed in Salzburg, Austria, where they were reunited with family members.

The 32 desert travelers had gone missing in seven groups beginning Feb. 22, all traveling without guides along a 320-mile highway favored by Western motorcycle tourists through an arid region of rocky plains, canyons and mountains near the Libyan border.

No group ever claimed responsibility for kidnapping them, giving rise a range of speculation from Islamic rebels, smugglers or retaliation for the conviction in Frankfurt of four Algerians who plotted to bomb a French holiday market.

Officials declined to provide details of the rescue but the daily newspaper El Watan reported that the commandos freed the 17 in a dawn raid Tuesday, engaging in a battle that lasted several hours and left nine suspected hostage-takers dead. Their hideout was 1,200 miles south of Algiers.

The report said the army located the captives, held in two groups, using reconnaissance planes equipped with thermal vision gear. The report indicated Algerian officials knew the whereabouts of those still in captivity, but their fate remained unclear.

Johannes Kyrle, the secretary general of the Foreign Ministry who traveled on the plane, declined to give any details about the hostages’ ordeal, saying “we are showing solidarity to the 15 who are still in Algeria.”

In Germany, some of the hostages leaned heavily on the handrail as they left the plane. Axel Mantey, 30, was the first to emerge, sporting a beard and wearing an Arab robe. He was followed by his girlfriend Melanie Simon, 25, in a bright pink robe, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

Released Swedish hostage Harald Ickler reacts after disembarking from a German Air Force plane at the Cologne-Bonn military airport in western Germany. Seven hostages landed Wednesday in Germany, and 10 in Austria, a day after they were freed in Algeria.

The Swede, Harald Ickler, 52, who lives in Bavaria, punched both arms in the air and gave a double victory sign as he descended the stairs.

German officials had been pressuring Algeria to resolve the mysterious disappearances, but Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer only acknowledged Tuesday that the 16 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss, a Netherlander and a Swede had been kidnapped. He made the revelation to reporters in Tunisia a day after meeting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers.

He said members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French-language acronym GSPC, trained in Afghanistan, where they developed contacts with the al-Qaida leadership.

The use of the military to free the hostages raised concern about the safety of those still in captivity. “This has great risk,” said terrorism expert Berndt Georg Thamm.

Meanwhile, relatives of those still held continued their wait.

“What is positive for their families makes things even worse for the other hostages,” said Andreas Mitko of Augsburg, whose father, Witek, has been missing since March 8. “If it really was a military raid, then the other kidnappers could take revenge on the remaining hostages — my father, for example.”