On Day 4, Algeria crisis ends

On Day 4, Algeria crisis ends

Special Forces Storm Facility; 7 Hostages, 11 Militants Killed

In Amenas (Algeria): Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert on Saturday in a “final assault” that ended a four-dayold hostage crisis, according to the state news agency and two foreign governments. At least 19 hostages and 29 militants have been killed.
    The report, quoting a security source, didn’t say whether any hostages or militants remained alive, and it didn’t give the nationalities of the dead. It said the army was forced to intervene after a fire broke out in the plant and said the militants killed the hostages. It wasn’t immediately possible to verify who killed the captives.
    Seven hostages and 11 militants were killed in Saturday’s operation, adding to the previous tally of 12 captives and 18 kidnappers.
    The In Amenas plant is jointly run by BP, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s stateowned oil company. The governments of Norway and Britain said they received confirmation the siege was over.
    The entire refinery was mined with explosives and set to blow up, the Algerian state oil company Sonatrach said in a statement, adding that the process of clearing the explosives had begun. The Algerian media reported that the militants had planned to blow up the complex.
    The siege transfixed the world after al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants stormed the complex, which contained hundreds of plant workers from all over the world.
    Algeria’s response to the crisis was typical of the country’s history in confronting terrorists — military action over negotiation — and caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens. Algerian military forces twice assaulted the areas where the hostages were being held with minimal apparent negotiation — first on Thursday and then on Saturday.
    The latest deaths bring the official Algerian tally of dead to 19 hostages and 29 militants, although reports on the number of dead, injured and freed have been contradictory throughout the crisis.
    Militants originally said they had seized 41 foreign hostages.
    The al-Qaida-linked militants attacked the plant Wednesday morning. They crept across the border from Libya, 100 kilometres away, and fell on a pair of buses taking foreign workers to the airport. The buses’ military escort drove off the attackers in a blaze of gunfire that sent bullets zinging over the heads of crouching workers.
    A Briton and an Algerian, probably a security guard, were killed.
    Frustrated, the militants turned to the vast gas complex, divided between the workers’ living quarters and the refinery itself, and seized hostages, the Algerian government said.
    The gas flowing to the site was cut off. On Thursday, Algerian helicopters opened fire on a convoy carrying both kidnappers and their hostages, resulting in many deaths, according to witnesses.
    In their final communications, the militants said they were holding seven hostages: three Belgian, two Americans, a Japanese and a Briton. They had even threatened to kill them if the Algerian army attacked.
    The militants initially said their operation was intended to stop a French attack on Islamist militants in neighbouring Mali — though they later said it was two months in the planning, long before the French military intervention. AP
DESERT SIEGE
Four days on, hostage crisis in the Algerian gas plant was ended by the special forces in a final assault on Saturday. Terror outfit Al Mulathameen was behind the kidnapping drama HOW THE CRISIS UNFOLDED
Jan 16| Gunmen attack 2 buses carrying gas fi eld workers towards In Amenas airfi eld. A Briton and an Algerian killed
    The militants drive to the installation at Tigantourine, take
Algerian and foreign workers hostage in the residential area and the main gas facility
    Algerian army surrounds abductors Jan 17| Algerian forces attack as militants try to move some captives from the facility; some hostages escape, others killed Jan 18| Algerian forces retake living quarters, the hostages and their kidnappers ensconced in the refi nery
    Around 100 of the 135 foreign workers and 573 Algerians freed, offi cials say Jan 19| Special forces launch fi nal assault on the gas plant
    7 hostages, 11 militants killed
    It is not clear if all the kidnappers are dead or whether the hostages have been freed TOTAL RECALL An Algerian man who escaped says captors armed with AK-47s, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades; they told him they only wanted to keep foreigners hostage
Another rescued man says
hostages forced to wear explosives on their bodies; some hid under beds and on rooftops
    In Amenas plant in Algeria. It is jointly run by BP, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s state-owned oil company. The site of the gas plant spreads out over several acres with dozens of buildings

    I saw fi ve inside
    the plant, but I don’t know how many others were outside. From their accents I understood one was Egyptian, one Tunisian, another Algerian and one was speaking English or a foreign language—IBA EL HAZA | A DRIVER AT BP GAS PLANT
    I stayed hidden
    for nearly 40 hours in my bedroom. I was under the bed. I had food, water; I didn’t know how long I would be there —
ALEXANDRE BERCEAUX | A
FRENCH EMPLOYEE