January 20, 2013 5:54AM
ALGERIA’S four-day hostage standoff came to a bloody end overnight when the country’s special forces stormed the remote desert gas plant and killed 11 militants, but not before they in turn executed seven hostages, the state news agency reported.
The report, quoting a security source, didn’t specify if any hostages or militants remained alive or give the nationalities of the dead.
“The (army) assault took place mid-morning. Eleven terrorists lost their lives along with the foreign hostages,” the security source told AFP.
“We think they were killed in retaliation” for the army attack,the source said.
Algerian authorities estimated that around 30 militants occupied the Ain Amenas on Wednesday and with 18 already reported dead, it appears the hostage crisis involving hundreds of plant workers is finally over.
Experts have begun to clear the complex of bombs planted by the Islamists, says Sonatrach, the Algerian firm that runs the gas plant jointly with Britain’s BP and Norway’s Statoil.
British Defence Minister Philip Hammond calls the loss of life appalling and unacceptable. He says “it is the terrorists that bear the sole responsibility for it.”
Mr Hammond was speaking at a news conference with US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who said much remains “sketchy” but “we know that lives have been lost.”
Mr Panetta refused to criticise Algeria. “They are in the region, they understand the threat from terrorism … I think it’s important that we continue to work with (Algiers) to develop a regional approach.”
“We’re pressing the Algerians for details on the exact situation,” said Mr Hammond.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain must prepare itself for “bad news,” and that “the large majority” of Britons originally caught up in the crisis were safe, with “fewer than 10” at risk or unaccounted for.
France said no more of its nationals are being held hostage. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on France 3 television that a Frenchman had been killed in the attack and other captured French nationals had been freed.
Mr Le Drian said he could not confirm that a French national, who he said used the surname Le Guen, was among the attackers at the Algerian gas plant but that he expected to find out soon. He said Le Guen had been in neighbouring Mali for the past several weeks.
The French national killed in the assault has been named as Yann Desjeux, a former special forces soldier who was also the co-owner of a restaurant in the southwestern beach town of Anglet.
President Francois Hollande said French troops would stay in Mali as long as is needed “to defeat terrorism” in the West African country and its neighbours.
There was no official count of how many hostages were still being held by the final group of militants holed up in the gas refinery overnight, but the militants themselves had reported they were still holding three Belgian, two Americans, a Japanese and a Briton.
Earlier, Islamist gunmen remained holed up with an unknown number of foreign hostages at a gas plant in the Algerian desert, amid uncertainty over what the army was doing to free their captives.
A Romanian national has been killed and another injured in the Algeria hostage crisis, Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta says.
“We have just had confirmation of the death of one of the five Romanians held hostage in Algeria,” he told a press conference on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean said authorities in Bucharest did not yet know how the hostage died.
Two freed British hostages identified as Peter (centre) and Alan (left) with an unidentified Norwegian hostage outside a police station in Ain Amenas, Algeria.
The foreign ministry is keeping the families of the five Romanians abreast of events as they develop.
The ministry had previously announced that three Romanians had been freed, but did not say if any others were still being held by Islamist gunmen at a remote gas plant in the Algerian desert.
The final raid came after the situation appeared to be at a stand-off. More than 72 hours after the heavily armed militants staged a deadly raid on the complex, and two days after Algerian special forces launched a botched rescue bid widely condemned as hasty.
On Friday, a security official said troops were trying to reach a “peaceful” end to the crisis, before “neutralising the terrorist group that is holed up in the plant and freeing a group of hostages still being held there.”
Earlier, The gunmen, cited by Mauritania’s ANI news agency, said they were still holding three Belgians, two Americans, one Japanese and a Briton, although Belgium said there was no indication that any of its nationals were being held.
Amid the virtual news blackout in Algiers, harshly criticised by the local media, world leaders were taking a tough stand on insisting that the remaining hostages be freed.
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.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington would “take all necessary steps to protect our people” from the threat of al-Qaida-affiliated militants in north Africa.
“Whether or not that involves assisting others with military operations, whether it involves developing in a cooperative way operations there, those are areas that I think remain to be decided,” he told the BBC.
On Friday, Mr Panetta had said Washington was “working around the clock” to secure the safe return of Americans, after at least one was confirmed dead.
A US official said a military aircraft had begun to help evacuate survivors, but gave no estimate of the number of US hostages.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida that Washington remained “deeply concerned about those who remain in danger. Utmost care must be taken to preserve innocent life.”
Mr Kishida urged Algeria to place the “utmost priority” on ensuring the remaining hostages’ safety.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered his government to do everything possible to ensure the safety of those Japanese unaccounted for in what he called “an extremely despicable” incident that “can never be forgiven.”
Britain’s Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond, left, addresses the media alongside US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in London. Picture: Jacquelyn Martin)
“I would like you to do your best to confirm the safety of the Japanese and rescue them by using every possible means,” Mr Abe told top government officials after cutting short a trip to Southeast Asia.
The UN Security Council “condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack” and “underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice.”
Algerian news agency APS quoted a government official as saying the kidnappers, who claimed to have comefrom Niger, were armed with machineguns, assault rifles, rocket launchers and missiles.
They belong to a group known as “Signatories in Blood,” led by a Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former senior al-Qaida commander in north Africa. The group is demanding an end to French intervention in neighbouring Mali, Mauritania’s ANI news agency quoted sources close to Belmokhtar as saying.
Belmokhtar also called for exchanging American hostages for the blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, jailed in the US on charges of terrorist links.
But US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said “the United States does not negotiate with terrorists.”
Philippine worker Jojo Balmaceda, employed by British oil giant BP which operates the In Amenas gas plant jointly with Norway’s Statoil and Sonatrach of Algeria, recounted overnight how he escaped.
Mr Balmaceda and three fellow Filipinos were taken at gunpoint as they arrived for work, tied up and thrown into a truck along with Japanese and Malaysian hostages, the GMA network reported in the Philippines.
He escaped when the truck was hit by an explosion but sustained a gunshot wound to his head which had affected his hearing, the station added.
An official in Manila said 34 Filipinos had been evacuated from the gas field and were on their way home.
The fate of two Malaysians believed to have been caught up in the crisis remains unknown, the foreign ministry said, while three others were safe.
France said two of its nationals had returned safely but it had no word on two more, and Romania said three of its citizens had been freed.
Earlier, Algeria informed France that a French citizen was killed in the hostage rescue operation at a remote gas plant seized by Islamist militants, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed today.
“One of our countrymen, Yann Desjeux, has unfortunately lost his life. Three other of our citizens, who were also at the site during the attack by the terrorists, were saved,” Mr Fabius said.
As criticism mounted over the haste of an Algerian military assault on the Sahara desert site, APS news agency said earlier that special forces had freed more than 670 hostages, among them 573 Algerians and about 100 foreigners.
“Around 100 foreigners out of 132 hostages seized by a terrorist group that attacked the Tiguentourine gas plant on Wednesday have been freed,” APS cited a security official as saying.
British Prime Minister David Cameron warned the In Amenas gas plant was a “large and complex site and they are still pursuing terrorists and possibly some of the hostages in other areas of the site.”
An AFP photographer saw trucks delivering empty coffins to the hospital at In Amenas, where the wounded had been taken.
Some of those who had escaped or spoke of their ordeals said explosives had been wrapped around their necks. Others hid, petrified, under beds, in gaps above ceilings or wherever they could.
A satellite image shows the Amenas Gas Field in Algeria where foreign hostages are held by al-Qaida-linked militants, with estimates for the number of dead vary wildly from four to dozens. Picture: DigitalGlobe
Alexandre Berceaux, who works for France’s CSI Catering, said he hid in his room before being freed by Algerian troops on Thursday evening.
“I was under the bed and I put boards everywhere just in case,” Mr Berceaux said.
“I had a bit of food, a bit to drink. I didn’t know how long it would last.”
Algerian special forces launched their rescue bid on Thursday, a day after kidnappers seized the plant to avenge what they said was Algiers’ support for French air strikes in neighbouring Mali.
The kidnappers said 34 captives were killed in the army assault, but an Algerian security source called that “fantasy,” saying 18 of more than 30 Islamist gunmen were killed.
“We left the complex by a back door the terrorists didn’t know about,” said one freed Algerian.
A rescued hostage receives treatment in a hospital In Amenas.
“We waved a white cloth so the army would know we were workers.”
Another Algerian, who works for US firm Halliburton, described the Islamist assault.
“There were around 300 or 400 of us, employees of BP and other firms. They gathered us all together, Algerians and foreigners, in the canteen which they rigged with explosives,” he said.
“The army moved in at about midday” on Thursday.
Britain’s Mr Cameron said he was “disappointed” not to have been told in advance about the rescue bid, and said “significantly” fewer than 30 Britons remained at risk at the field, operated jointly by BP, Norway’s Statoil and Sonatrach of Algeria.
BP said a “small number” of its staff remained unaccounted for, adding it had evacuated hundreds of workers from the complex and other fields. Japanese plant builder JGC said it had accounted for 17 of its employees, but not another 61. Statoil said the fate of eight Norwegian workers was unknown.
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
France said two of its nationals had returned safely but it had no word on two more. Vienna said one Austrian had been released.
A Northern Ireland man, Stephen McFaul, escaped. His brother said he fled when the convoy he was in came under army fire.
from: http://www.news.com.au/world/al-qaeda-seizes-hostages-in-algeria/story-fndir2ev-1226555513214
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using the number/letter grid:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z
Where:
A = 1 J = 1 S = 1
B = 2 K = 2 T = 2
C = 3 L = 3 U = 3
D = 4 M = 4 V = 4
E = 5 N = 5 W = 5
F = 6 O = 6 X = 6
G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7
H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8
I = 9 R = 9
Yann Desjeux
7 11
the most important thing he could do (YS) and how he appeared to the world (YJ) both = 71 = A professional. Special forces soldier.
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Sex Numerology available at:
https://www.createspace.com/3802937
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discover some of your own numerology for FREE at:
http://numerologybasics.com/
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learn numerology from numerologist to the world, Ed Peterson:
https://www.createspace.com/3411561
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predictions for the year 2013 are at:
http://predictionsyear2013.com/
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