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Algeria hostage crisis ends in bloodbath

ALGERIA: Algerian troops stormed a remote gas plant Saturday to end a hostage crisis that killed 23 foreigners and Algerians, seven of them executed by their Islamist captors in a final military assault. Twenty-one hostages died during the siege that began when the Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen attacked the In Amenas facility deep in the Sahara desert at dawn on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed, and special forces were able to free “685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners”, it said.

Among the dead were an unknown number of foreigners -- including from Britain, France, Romania and the United States -- and many were still unaccounted for. Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp. said Sunday that 10 Japanese and seven foreign workers remained unaccounted for, but confirmed the safety of 61 of 78 workers.

The kidnappers led by Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former Al-Qaeda commander in North Africa, killed two people on a bus, a Briton and an Algerian, before taking hundreds of workers hostage when they overran the gas plant.

Belmokhtar's “Signatories in Blood” group had been demanding an end to French military intervention against jihadists in neighbouring Mali.

In Saturday's assault, “the Algerian army took out 11 terrorists, and the terrorist group killed seven foreign hostages”, state television said, without giving a breakdown of their nationalities.

A security official who spoke to AFP as army helicopters overflew the plant gave the same death tolls, adding it was believed the foreigners were executed “in retaliation”. As experts began to clear the complex of bombs planted by the Islamists, residents of In Amenas breathed a collective sigh of relief. “We went from a peaceful situation to a terror situation,” said one resident who gave his name as Fouad.

“The plant could have exploded and taken out the town,” said another.

Brahim Zaghdaoui said he was not surprised by the Algerian army's ruthless final assault. “It was predictable that it would end like that,” he said standing outside the town's hospital, where coffins were seen arriving in the morning.

Most of the hostages had been freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a rescue operation, which was widely condemned as hasty. But US President Barack Obama, his French counterpart Francois Hollande and US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta refused to blame Algeria and said responsibility for the deaths lay with the “terrorists”.

Obama's remarks were his first direct comments about the hostage crisis. The attack was a reminder of the threat posed by “Al-Qaeda and other violent extremist groups in North Africa”.

“In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this,” Obama added.

The response by Algiers was “the most appropriate” given it was dealing with “coldly determined terrorists ready to kill their hostages”, said Hollande. Panetta said: “They are in the region, they understand the threat from terrorism... I think it's important that we continue to work with (Algiers) to develop a regional approach.”

Belmokhtar also wanted to exchange American hostages for the blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, jailed in the United States on charges of terrorist links.

At least one American had already been confirmed dead before Saturday's assault. But the State Department said “the United States does not negotiate with terrorists”.

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the deaths were “appalling and unacceptable and we must be clear that it is the terrorists who bear sole responsibility for it”.

AFP

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