Hostages, kidnappers killed

Algeria launches air raids on seized gas plant

ALGIERS: Algerian military forces killed 34 hostages and 15 of their kidnappers in an assault on a remote desert gas field, the ANI news agency quoted a spokesman for the kidnappers as saying.

“Thirty-four hostages and 15 kidnappers were killed in an (air) raid by the Algerian army,” he said.

Among the dead was Abu alBaraa, who led the Wednesday operation in which 41 foreigners and scores of Algerians were seized.

It was earlier reported that at least 20 foreign hostages escaped from militants who had taken over an Algerian natural gas complex in the Sahara desert.

At least 20 gunmen attacked the vast complex early Wednesday in retaliation for France’s military intervention against al-Qaeda-linked rebels in neighbouring Mali.

The militants, who claimed to have 41 hostages, have been in a tense stand-off since then, surrounded by the Algerian military, which has helicopters flying over the plant.

Some 30 Algerian workers fled the complex earlier in the day, suggesting that the militants are having trouble managing the many hostages they have taken at the vast natural gas complex, the third largest in oil-rich Algeria.

The group claiming responsibility – called Katibat Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade – originally said it had captured 41 foreigners, including two Malaysians, in the surprise attack on the In Amenas gas plant, 1,300km south of here.

Two people, one a Briton and an Algerian, were killed in the initial assault, which the US defence secretary has called “a terrorist attack”.

The kidnapping is one of the largest ever attempted by a militant group in North Africa.

The hostage-takers are reportedly seeking a safe passage out of the isolated area, something Algerian authorities have already rejected.

Another Algerian official said authorities are in contact with tribal elders among Algerian Tuaregs, who are ethnically related to the rebels fighting the Mali government, some of whom have close al-Qaeda links.

The France-based head of a catering company at the plant told French media before the latest escape that some 40 foreigners appeared to be held hostage in a separate area from the Algerian workers.

Regis Arnoux of the Mareseille-based CIS Catering company said while electricity to the plant had been cut, it had at least three weeks of food supplies.

Militants phoned a Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its affiliates had carried out the operation and that France should end its intervention in Mali to ensure the safety of the hostages.

The kidnappers have also demanded the release of some 100 extremists in Algeria, and want them sent to northern Mali, where French and Malian troops were battling extremists who seized a massive swathe of territory in April 2012. — Agencies