A hostage crisis in Algeria has ended with the deaths of seven foreigners and 11 Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen.
GOVERNMENTS are scrambling to track down missing nationals after the bloody end to a gas plant siege in the Sahara that saw Islamists kill at least 23 foreigners and Algerians, mostly hostages, amid fears the death toll may rise.
"I fear that it may be revised upward," Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said told public Channel 3 radio of the number of dead - a day after special forces stormed the remote desert facility to end a hostage crisis that saw seven foreigners killed by their captors in the final moments.
Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed in the 72-hour stand-off, and the army freed "685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners," Algeria's interior ministry said. Among the dead were an unknown number of foreigners.
With few details emerging from the remote Ain Amenas site in eastern Algeria, it was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final operation, but the number of hostages killed - seven - was how many the militants had said they still had.
Amateur video appears to show burnt out vehicles following a government attack on a convoy of vehicles from an Algerian desert gas plant. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement he had spoken to his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal, "and it is now clear that this appalling terrorist incident in Algeria is now over.
"Tragically, we now know that three British nationals have been killed, and a further three are believed to be dead. And also a further British resident is also believed to be dead."
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday that a Colombian man who lived in London with his family had been killed. He was named as BP employee Carlos Estrada.
An image from Algeria's Ennahar TV shows hostages surrendering to Islamist gunmen who overtook a gas facility in Tiguentourine near In Amenas in the south of the country.
Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp said 10 of its Japanese and seven of its foreign workers remained unaccounted for.
JGC confirmed the safety of 61 of its 78 workers at the In Amenas facility that was stormed at dawn Wednesday by militants from "Signatories in Blood," a group demanding an end to French military intervention in Mali.
"But the safety of the remaining 10 Japanese and seven foreign workers is yet to be confirmed," a JGC spokesman said in Tokyo.
Two freed British hostages identified as Peter (centre) and Alan (left) with an unidentified Norwegian hostage outside a police station in Ain Amenas, Algeria.
Kuala Lumpur said JGC had told it one of two Malaysians still unaccounted for is dead whilst the fate of the other was unknown.
Norway's Statoil, which operates the gas plant alongside Britain's BP and Sonatrach of Algeria, said the situation remains "unresolved" for five Statoil employees.
"We will, and we must, keep hoping for more positive news from Algeria. However, we must be prepared to deal with bad news in the next few days," Statoil CEO Helge Lund said.
Freed Algerian hostages arrive at Algiers airport after they were released by Islamist captors from a gas plant in In Amenas. Seven foreign hostages and 11 Islamist gunmen were killed on Saturday when the desert stand-off ended in a bloodbath.
Relatives of Kenneth Whiteside, 59, from Glenrothes in Scotland, were "devastated" after hearing that an Algerian co-worker claimed to have seen him being shot but dying bravely with a smile, Britain's Mail on Sunday reported.
The mother of survivor Stephen McFaul, 36, from Belfast, told the Sunday Mirror her son will "have nightmares for the rest of his life after the things he saw".
Forced to wear explosives, he fled when the hostage-takers' convoy he was in came under fire on Thursday.
A satellite image shows the Amenas Gas Field in Algeria where the foreign hostages were held by al-Qaida-linked militants. Picture: DigitalGlobe
In the final assault, "the Algerian army took out 11 terrorists, and the terrorist group killed seven foreign hostages," state television said, without giving a breakdown.
A security official told AFP it was believed seven foreigners were executed "in retaliation."
The militants, whose leader is Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former Al-Qaeda commander, first killed a Briton and an Algerian on a bus on Wednesday before taking hundreds of workers hostage when they overran the gas plant.
A rescued hostage receives treatment in a hospital In Amenas.
Most of the hostages were freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a first rescue operation which was widely condemned as hasty.
But US President Barack Obama and his French counterpart Francois Hollande said responsibility for the deaths lay with the "terrorists."
"The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms," Obama said in a statement.
A family photograph of escaped Irish hostage Stephen McFaul, seen with his sons. Mr McFaul has contacted his family in Belfast to tell them he is safe, Ireland said. Picture: AFP/HO/Family album
"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.
At least one American had already been confirmed dead before the final assault.
Hollande called Algiers' response "the most appropriate" given it was dealing with "coldly determined terrorists ready to kill their hostages."
A photo of the In Amenas gas field in Algeria, where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign hostages on Wednesday. Picture: AFP/Statoil/Kjetil Alsvik
Monitoring group IntelCenter said the hostage-taking was the largest since the 2008 Mumbai attack, and the biggest by jihadists since hundreds were killed in a Moscow theatre in 2002 and at a school in the Russian town of Beslan in 2004.
Algerian driver Iba El Haza told AFP the hostage-takers spoke in different Arabic dialects.
"From their accents I understood one was Egyptian, one Tunisian, another Algerian and one was speaking English or (another) foreign language," he said after escaping on Thursday.
"The terrorists said: 'You have nothing to do with this, you are Algerians and Muslims. We won't keep you, we only want the foreigners'."
Hollande said French troops would stay in neighbouring Mali as long as was needed "to defeat terrorism" in the West African country and its neighbours.
Malian and French troops patrolled the outskirts of the contested northern town of Diabaly Sunday in a show of muscle a day after West African leaders demanded speedy UN aid to rout Islamists holding the vast desert north.
This video grab shows former al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emir Mokhtar Belmokhtar speaking at an undisclosed location. Picture: AFP
Earlier, the Algerian state news service reported that de-mining teams were going through the gas refinery that was the scene of a bloody four-day hostage standoff, searching for explosive traps left by the Islamic militants.
The Philippines has not confirmed how many of its nationals were working at the plant, but said 52 had been accounted for and 39 of those were expected to arrive in Manila later today.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith believes no Australians have been caught up in a terrorist attack in Algeria.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Search for survivors after bloody siege
Dengan url
http://kelapapantai.blogspot.com/2013/01/search-for-survivors-after-bloody-siege.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Search for survivors after bloody siege
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Search for survivors after bloody siege
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar