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Algerian Army Reportedly Rescues Hostages, Death Toll Unclear

Jan. 17, 2013 7:50am Jonathon M. Seidl

This image from video provided by the SITE Intel Group made available Thursday Jan. 17, 2013, purports to show militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar. Credit: AP

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — 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.

Dueling claims from the military and the militants muddied the world’s understanding of an event that angered Western leaders, raised world oil prices and complicated the international military operation in neighboring Mali.

At least six people, and perhaps many more, were killed – Britons, Filipinos and Algerians. Terrorized hostages from Ireland and Norway trickled out of the Ain Amenas plant, families urging them never to return.

Dozens more remained unaccounted for: Americans, Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians, Japanese, Algerians and the fighters themselves.

A U.S. official said late Thursday that while some Americans escaped, other Americans remain either held or unaccounted for. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The U.S. government sent an unmanned surveillance drone to the BP-operated site, near the border with Libya and 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) 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 and drove ahead alone.

With the hostage drama entering its second day Thursday, Algerian security forces moved in, first with helicopter fire and then special forces, according to diplomats, a website close to the militants, and an Algerian security official. 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 in Thursday’s military assault, but succeeded in garnering a global audience.

Even violence-scarred Algerians were stunned by the brazen hostage-taking Wednesday, the biggest in northern Africa in years and the first to include Americans as targets. Mass fighting in the 1990s had largely spared the lucrative oil and gas industry that gives Algeria its economic independence and regional weight.

The hostage-taking raised questions about security for sites run by multinationals that are dotted across Africa’s largest country. It also raised the prospect of similar attacks on other countries allied against the extremist warlords and drug traffickers who rule a vast patch of desert across several countries in northwest Africa. Even the heavy-handed Algerian response may not deter groups looking for martyrdom and attention.

Casualty figures in the Algerian standoff varied widely. The remote location is extremely hard to reach and was surrounded by Algerian security forces – who, like the militants, are inclined to advertise their successes and minimize their failures.

“An important number of hostages were freed and an important number of terrorists were eliminated, and we regret the few dead and wounded,” Algeria’s communications minister, Mohand Said Oubelaid, told national media, adding that the “terrorists are multinational,” coming from several different countries with the goal of “destabilizing Algeria, embroiling it in the Mali conflict and damaging its natural gas infrastructure.”

The official 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, via a Mauritanian news website, claimed that 35 hostages and 15 militants died in the helicopter strafing. A spokesman for the Masked Brigade told the Nouakchott Information Agency in Mauritania that only seven hostages survived.

By nightfall, Algeria’s government said the raid was over. But the whereabouts of the rest of the plant workers was unclear.

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke on the phone to share their confusion. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the Obama administration was “seeking clarity from the government of Algeria.”

An unarmed American surveillance drone soared overhead as the Algerian forces closed in, U.S. officials said. The U.S. offered military assistance Wednesday to help rescue the hostages but the Algerian government refused, a U.S. official said in Washington. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the offer.

Militants earlier said they were holding seven Americans, but the administration confirmed only that Americans were among those taken. The U.S. government was in contact with American businesses across North Africa and the Middle East to help them guard against the possibility of copycat attacks.

BP, the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian state oil company Sonatrach, operate the gas field and a Japanese company, JGC Corp, provides services for the facility.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe protested the military raid as an act that “threatened the lives of the hostages,” according to a spokesman.

Jean-Christophe Gray, a spokesman for Cameron, said Britain was not informed in advance of the raid.

One Irish hostage managed to escape: electrician Stephen McFaul, who’d worked in North Africa’s oil and natural gas fields off and on for 15 years. His family said the militants let hostages call their families to press the kidnappers’ demands.

“He phoned me at 9 o’clock to say al-Qaida were holding him, kidnapped, and to contact the Irish government, for they wanted publicity. Nightmare, so it was. Never want to do it again. He’ll not be back! He’ll take a job here in Belfast like the rest of us,” said his mother, Marie.

Dylan, McFaul’s 13-year-old son, started crying as he talked to Ulster Television. “I feel over the moon, just really excited. I just can’t wait for him to get home,” he said.

At least one Filipino managed to escape and was slightly injured, the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department said. Spokesman Raul Hernandez said he had no information about any fatalities.

Algerian forces who had ringed the Ain Amenas complex had vowed not to negotiate with the militants, who reportedly were seeking safe passage. Security experts said the end of the two-day standoff was in keeping with the North African country’s tough approach to terrorism.

“Algerians clearly were not willing to compromise with the terrorists and not willing to accept the idea of coping with the situation for days and days,” said Riccardo Fabiani of Eurasia Group. “Algerians never had problems causing a blood bath to respond to terrorist attacks.”

Phone contacts with the militants were severed as government forces closed in, according to the Mauritanian agency, which often carries reports from al-Qaida-linked extremist groups in North Africa.

A 58-year-old Norwegian engineer who made it to the safety of a nearby Algerian military camp told his wife how militants attacked a bus Wednesday before being fended off by a military escort.

“Bullets were flying over their heads as they hid on the floor of the bus,” Vigdis Sletten told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her home in Bokn, on Norway’s west coast.

Her husband and the other bus passengers climbed out of a window and were transported to a nearby military camp, she said, declining to give his name for security reasons.

News of the bloody Algerian operation caused oil prices to rise $1.25 to close at $95.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and prompted energy companies like BP PLC and Spain’s Compania Espanola de Petroleos SA to try to relocate energy workers at other Algerian plants.

Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kabila said the 20-odd militants entered the country from nearby Libya in three vehicles, in an operation commanded by extremist mastermind Moktar Belmoktar, who is normally based in Mali.

“The Algerian authorities have expressed, many times, to the Libyan authorities, its fears and asked it a dozen times to be careful and secure borders with Algeria,” Kabila was quoted as saying on the website of the newspaper Echourouk.

The militants made it clear that their attack was fallout from the intervention in Mali. One commander, Oumar Ould Hamaha, said they were now “globalizing the conflict” in revenge for the military assault on Malian soil.

France has encountered fierce resistance from the extremist groups in Mali and failed to persuade many allies to join in the actual combat. The Algeria raid could push other partners to act more decisively in Mali – but could also scare away those who are wary of inviting terrorist attacks back home.

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Comments (58)

Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:43pm
I thought “‘al quaeda was on the run” The media played out the story the during the election.

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- AvengerK
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:10pm
  They are…they’re running all over Obama and his keystone kops administration.
  
  Report this comment
- KevINtampa
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:22pm
  This is going to sound cold but it’s a lesson we all should have learned after the very daring, difficult, and ultimately brave decisions regarding London and Dresden.
  
  Dresden more specifically. Dresden was where the NAZI’s housed their POWs and civilians (of several nationalities) that didn’t comply to NAZI demands. The allies decimated Dresden, including the POWs and political prisoners for which Germany was trying to use as bargain chips. They could not use these people as pawns.
  
  In one fell swoop the allies showed their enemy they had the will to win wars. While saving people from the capture of terrorists, once they are in their grips we should not negotiate with them; and if where they are held also makes a valuable strategic target wipe it out. This is the will that is required to win wars. This is why wars are hell.
  
  Report this comment
toto
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:41pm
How could this be? Al Qaeda has been decimated, Obama says so.

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FlagWavingPatriot
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:41pm
Easy, easy.

We’ll know what happened as soon as Obama’s people are done writing the story.

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- Walkabout
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:05pm
  Yes but however the Democrats on the Obama team spin the story, the relatives of the deceased will know it is a lie.
  
  The relatives will know information about from email & phone calls prior to the attack that won’t jive with what the regime drones concoct while eating pizza at the Whitehouse in their whitewash attempt.
  
  Report this comment
- pavepaws
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:13pm
  Benghazi strategists.
  
  Report this comment
- AvengerK
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:16pm
  I wish the Blaze would stop running trick articles….that’s a picture of WANGO/YOURSENSEI/MONICNE at his mother’s house Thanksgiving 2006. Nifty hat YOURSENSEI…looks a little tight though.
  
  Report this comment
Texter5000
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:42pm
This administration is a colossal failure.

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- MittensKittens
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:41pm
  Should I stay or should I go now???
  
  Sounds remotely familiar!
  
  Report this comment
GuruMeditation
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 12:21pm
The way I see it. Either way, they escaped.

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- Xiccarph
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 12:29pm
  Ethereally speaking, quite true.
  
  Not a good thing if its true that the alleged good guys made a “spray and pray” assault against the facility. Why would they even try such a move???
  
  Report this comment
- Lord_Frostwind
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:18pm
  They likely don’t have the smart weapon technology, and if you’re enemy is too well entrenched, your options become severely limited. It is tragic, but there is a legitimate strategic reasoning behind it, “if you hesitate to shoot an enemy who hides behind human shields, then everyone will start using them because they know it is your weakness.” Cruel and barbaric as that strategy is, I believe there is a lot more truth to it than I would like to think about.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:31pm
  Use a human shield >> end up dead.
  
  Terrorists will stop using human shields.
  
  Report this comment
John.Galt
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 12:02pm
As usual, LIBERALS MURDER THE VICTIMS. Remember Waco? How many children died at the hands of Bill Clinton? AND THEY WERE BURNED TO DEATH.

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- ranepowel
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 12:27pm
  The people who died in Waco and Ruby Ridge DESERVED TO DIE. They had options, and instead they chose to die. Those parents killed their own children by refusing to comply. It’s on their heads, not the FBI, who did exactly what they should’ve done.
  
  Report this comment
- AvengerK
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 12:48pm
  More Americans dead thanks to the keystone kops Obama administration….
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:46pm
  ranepowel
  “The people who died in Waco and Ruby Ridge DESERVED TO DIE” Ha Ha ha ha!
  ***
  Randy Weaver attempted to make money by selling some shotguns. He provided 2 shotguns to a customer, undercover government thugs. They asked him to saw off the barrels another few inches. He didn’t want to. But eventually relented & that is why they went after him.
  
  Sawed of shotguns were declared illegal by a judge between WW1 & WW2 because they had not legitimate purpose for self defense. He said they were basically useless. Never mind that people had use the sawed off shotguns during trench warfare in WW1.
  
  Now Government sniper Horiuchi had to take a shot at Vicki Weaver because why? there was a hostage situation or Clinton needed a photo op.
  
  You might think it is a joke & get your jollies, but we don’t.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:02pm
  Ranepowel
  
  ” Weaver’s attorney Gerry Spence made accusations of “criminal wrongdoing” against every agency involved in the incident:
  
  the FBI, USMS, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for Idaho. At the completion of the trial, the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility formed a Ruby Ridge Task Force to investigate Spence’s charges. The 1994 Task Force report was released in
  
  redacted
  
  form by Lexis Counsel Connect and raised questions about the conduct and policy of all the agencies.”
  
  Rane Powell just read the wiki article & see if Randy Weaver was nothing but the original person to be swatted.
  
  Report this comment
- AvengerK
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:22pm
  You seem to be arbiter of your own brand of human rights today RAVINGPOWELL. On the “another gun stolen” board you sided with the thieves who entered a private residence and stole those homeowners’ belongings while orgiastically wishing that the guns that were stolen would be used to kill children. At which point you want the family who’s guns were stolen to be sued “until broke and on the streets”.
  And now you are saying eveyone at Waco deserved to die.
  The cruelty and viciousness of liberals and statists is no mystery but you seem to be exploding with it like the fat guy on Monty Python’s Meaning of Life.
  
  Report this comment
G-WHIZ
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 11:13am
Sometimes the BAaaaaaministration “comes-out” the next-day….sometimes it takes weeks!!
Becha this ain’t NO TERRORIST ATTACK!! These were NOT *******!! Therefore “itsa TERRORIST ATACK!!!”…when their OUR-PEOPLE who get killed…by OUR OWN DRONES!!

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shanew
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 11:12am
@Jonathon M. Seidl
Is this not in Algeria not Mali? I’m sure its just a type-O but you really need to have someone proof read a story like this before it goes out.
As far as I know this is in Algeria and the attic choppers were by the Algerian military, and the only thing this has related to Mali is the excuse the Militants gave for there reasoning in the attack, unless there are two BP Plants that have been attacked?

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- Patrick Henry
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 11:57am
  The Whole World is made of B.S. now. How can anyone get truth about anything I’ll never know.
  
  Report this comment
jrcess
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 11:06am
Sounds like Hillary was involved. Yep no terrorist in the the mid east. Hillary and Obama should both be tried for treason and murder.

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chaos175
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:46am
This entire hostage crisis has constant changing developments that no one media scource in america can keep up with. The algerian government is unreliable and the french are being tight lipped…sort of.
The French Foreign Legion is hopefully in the region to help secure anybody that may have escaped and maybe have some of their best shooters to possibly rescue any hostages that may be left.

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DeVain
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:25am
wait wait wait….this morning on the news I plainly heard the report that hostages escaped and called their family. Now unless it is a “phone call from the dead” what the heck is going on?

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- barber2
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:35am
  Obama’s propaganda machine, the MSM , is working on it….
  
  Report this comment
- txswalker
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:49am
  Its pointless to even listen to the news anymore. They are all a buch of hacks and a$$clowns. Most are libs just report things they hear cause thier too stupid to actually do the hard work of investigating and reporting the truth. Journalist use to have honor, now they are a bunch of hacks.
  
  Report this comment
M24
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:22am
Algerian Government Now thats a Waste Of Air ,They Know Two Things Over There Steal And Kill !!

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- Walkabout
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:30pm
  Algerian military looks pretty helpless. I have see films of their personnel getting owned by militants.
  
  I have read where militants would attack villages in the middle of the night & kill a few hundred people except for the young women they carry off to serve as sex slaves.
  
  That was before they joined Al Qaeda.
  
  But the Al Qaeda does not run Algeria & does not march down the capital or major cities in open daylight. So the military must have a little something to it.
  
  Report this comment
brigott
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:20am
Terrorist attack?

Surely not! It’s been less than 24 hours.

How do they know it wasn’t a “spontaneous” response to a video?

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- The American
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:02pm
  Spot on!
  
  Report this comment
Hikikomori
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:08am
Watchout Paris. Kabooom! France ditched Syrian Arabspringers for the dogs. Deranged François Hollande went enterprising his forces as mercenary conquistadores to kill al-Shabab in Somali and rebels in Mali. Now his buttock is theirs. It’s an amazing sensational déjàvu. Whenever I watched UK Foreign Secretary William Hague shaved-skull I tend my todger. Don’t be afraid he ain’t bite. Just dumb-down and listen
NO ALGERIAN GAS FOR ISRAEL. Now! DC Zionists & Capitol Israelifirster will really bonk America for snogging this one. Militants are holding 41 foreigners hostage, including seven Americans, after an attack on gas field booked for Israel. Obama vowed to protect Abdelaziz Bouteflika Thugocracy in Algeria from Arabspringers tsunami provides Abdelaziz Bouteflika deliver gas to Israel at 10percent of market price as Mubarak used to do in the good old days. Everyone has the right for a daydream.

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PIGSWILLNEVERFLY
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:07am
See the http://www.debka.com video on this and know WHO to lay the ultimate blame on for TRAINING AND ARMING THESE TERRORISTS. Could it be our favorite skinny zero and NATO? Who would think that to be…McCain what rock are you hiding under with Susan Rice and Samantha Powers and Hillary Clinton?

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Mapache
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 9:53am
Maybe Obama should have yesterday, instead of trying to get guns from law abiding citizens, maybe deployed some guys with guns to be on standby in the area should something like this transpire. In both this case and Benghazi, it seems our president and military have again caught flatfooted.

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Vickie Dhaene
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 9:40am
This State Department needs to be declared INCOMPETENT. Americans are being sacrificed!

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- barber2
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:05am
  Remember Benghazi ?
  
  Report this comment
- brigott
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:24am
  Ben Ghazi who?
  
  Oh! You’re talking about that video guy!
  
  Completely different, you know.
  
  That was BEFORE the election. Old news. Nothing to see here.
  
  Now we have guns to worry about.
  
  Gotta protect the children.
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:33am
  BRIGOTT: Guns ? Ok. Then REMEMBER FAST AND FURIOUS . Oh, and also remember Uncle Joe’s : “GM is alive but Bin Ladin is dead ! ” Feel better ? ( Even their Lap Dog MSM is going to have a hard time covering for the continual incompetence of the Chicago radicals in the White House. But that gun business is another great distraction from the Wizard of D.C.’s Office )
  
  Report this comment
cdn1979
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:45am
there is an update to this story. Algerian forces tried freeing the hostages. 35 hostages dead. 15 captors as well.

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Dismayed Veteran
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:40am
Somebody get Jesse Jackson on a plane. He needs to free these hostages.

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SamIamTwo
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:34am
Is this piece just now developing? I get confused.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2013/jan/17/algerian-islamists-hostages-standoff-live

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deltaecho
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:10am
Hi Monk – I like your posts – but I think the “submit button” is only on the Al-Jazeera site.

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- sbenard
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:40am
  This is old news. Various news sources are reporting that at least 34 hostages have been killed during attacks by Algerian bombing of the compound where they were being held. This is turning into another Iranian hostage crisis. Welcome to the world of Lame Duck Emperor Obama!
  
  Report this comment
kaydeebeau
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:06am
I thought al queda was on the run or destroyed or irrelavent – isn’t that what our naked emperor keeps telling us?

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DeltaBravo193
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:05am
I heard that Obama actually flew over there himself and freed those hostages. Intel also says he did 42 billion dollars worth of damage to the natural gas plant also. Word is he didn’t kill anyone but the damage done to the gas plant is beyond repair. Was told that the real reason he went over there was to destroy the plant. He sees that as the threat to the world more than extremism.

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Gonzo
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 7:58am
Meanwhile, the American press applauds the Obama administration for labeling this an act of terror.

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- Walkabout
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:34pm
  Dude you are not clapping hard enough.
  
  this place is starting o look like North Korea. When Dear Leader speaks, your only hope is that you are not the 1st one to pass out while applauding.
  
  Report this comment
The-Monk
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 7:55am
Is anyone else having issues with the new “submit button” and posting?
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- ccuster
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:04am
  yes I am also
  
  Report this comment
- The-Monk
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:18am
  Hi ccuster,
  
  What type of issues? Could you explain? I’m trying to figure this out. TIA
  
  Report this comment
- SamIamTwo
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 8:36am
  yep, maybe their oven for baking cookies is to low..
  
  Report this comment
- searching for the Truth
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 9:49am
  After a post ,one is immediately logged out.
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on January 17, 2013 at 10:08am
  MONK: Have been having trouble since last Monday. Frequently being asked to ” log in.” Took your advise and hit the return/ back page which often helps.
  
  Report this comment

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