Hostages and their captors
Are killed in a raid in Algeria, reports say.
ALGIERS, ALGERIA — Algerian helicopters and special forces stormed a gas plant in the stony plains of the Sahara on Thursday to wipe out Islamist militants and free hostages from at least 10 countries.
Bloody chaos ensued, leaving the fate of the fighters and many of the captives uncertain.
Duelling claims from the military and militants muddied the world’s understanding of an event that angered Western leaders, raised world oil prices and complicated the international military operation in neighbouring Mali.
At least six people, and perhaps many more, were killed. Terrorized hostages from Ireland and Norway trickled out of the Ain Amenas plant.
Dozens more remained unaccounted for: Americans, Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians, Japanese, Algerians and the fighters themselves.
The U.S. sent an unmanned surveillance drone to the site, near the border with Libya and 1,300 kilometres from the Algerian capital, but it could do little more than watch Thursday’s intervention. Algeria’s army-dominated government, hardened by decades of fighting Islamist militants, shrugged aside foreign offers of help.
With the hostage drama entering its second day Thursday, Algerian security forces moved in, first with helicopter fire and then special forces. The government said it was forced to intervene because the militants were being stubborn and wanted to flee with the hostages.
The militants—led by a Mali-based al-Qaida offshoot known as the Masked Brigade — suffered losses, but succeeded in garnering a global audience. Militia leader Moktar Belmoktar, al-Qaida’s strongman in the Sahara is believed to be linked to the carnage.
Even violence-scarred Algerians were stunned by the brazen hostage-taking, the biggest in northern Africa in years and the first to include Americans as targets.
The official APS news agency said four hostages were killed in Thursday’s operation, two Britons and two Filipinos. Two others, a Briton and an Algerian, died Wednesday in an ambush on a bus ferrying foreign workers to an airport. Citing hospital officials, the APS news agency said six Algerians and seven foreigners were injured.
APS said some 600 local workers were safely freed in the raid — but many of those were reportedly released the day before by the militants themselves.
The militants made it clear their attack was fallout from the intervention in Mali.