LONDON — Algerian security forces on Sunday were still sweeping a vast desert facility for bodies, a day after officials said eleven kidnappers and seven hostages died during an operation targeting the remaining militant stronghold at the plant run by London-based BP, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s state energy giant.
An Algerian official said he feared that the death toll would rise.
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Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.
“I am unfortunately very concerned that this balance will be revised upwards,” Algeria’s Minister of Communication Mohamed Said said Sunday on Algerian national radio. He said that the militants were of at least six nationalities, without being more specific.
Defying international calls for restraint, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that, over four days, left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday confirmed that three Britons had died and three more, along with a British resident, were feared dead. “The responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched these vicious and cowardly attacks,” he said.
An Algerian security official quoted by the news agencies suggested that the militants killed the hostages as forces moved in on their position. Earlier reports indicated that the heavily armed militants were holding two Americans, three Belgians, a Japanese and a Briton in one section of the compound, but there was as yet no official confirmation of the identities of the victims.
Algeria’s interior minister, Daho Ould Kablia, said on state television Saturday evening that the standoff was over, and that in all it had resulted in the deaths of 32 terrorists and at least 23 foreign hostages. Ould Kablia said that troops had found a huge amount of military equipment and highly sophisticated weapons in the complex.
At a news conference in London, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the U.S. government was “still trying to get accurate information about how many Americans were there and what happened to them.”
Asked whether the Algerian security forces had moved too quickly to resolve the standoff or had acted too aggressively, Panetta declined to criticize them. British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said that “it’s the terrorists that bear sole responsibility.”
But he acknowledged that Algeria had refused outside offers of assistance and that Britain may have handled things differently: “We find that they don’t always do things the way we would do them.”
“They’ve been clear from the outset that this is something they’re going to manage themselves,” Hammond said. “There can be no doubting their commitment to dealing with Islamist terrorism.”
As he has since the outbreak of the Algeria crisis, Panetta reiterated the Obama administration’s commitment to go after terrorists. But he gave no specifics about how it intended to respond to the hostage-taking, or more broadly to the threat of terrorism in Mali and elsewhere in North Africa.
An Algerian official said he feared that the death toll would rise.
Video
Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.
“I am unfortunately very concerned that this balance will be revised upwards,” Algeria’s Minister of Communication Mohamed Said said Sunday on Algerian national radio. He said that the militants were of at least six nationalities, without being more specific.
Defying international calls for restraint, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that, over four days, left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday confirmed that three Britons had died and three more, along with a British resident, were feared dead. “The responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched these vicious and cowardly attacks,” he said.
An Algerian security official quoted by the news agencies suggested that the militants killed the hostages as forces moved in on their position. Earlier reports indicated that the heavily armed militants were holding two Americans, three Belgians, a Japanese and a Briton in one section of the compound, but there was as yet no official confirmation of the identities of the victims.
Algeria’s interior minister, Daho Ould Kablia, said on state television Saturday evening that the standoff was over, and that in all it had resulted in the deaths of 32 terrorists and at least 23 foreign hostages. Ould Kablia said that troops had found a huge amount of military equipment and highly sophisticated weapons in the complex.
At a news conference in London, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the U.S. government was “still trying to get accurate information about how many Americans were there and what happened to them.”
Asked whether the Algerian security forces had moved too quickly to resolve the standoff or had acted too aggressively, Panetta declined to criticize them. British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said that “it’s the terrorists that bear sole responsibility.”
But he acknowledged that Algeria had refused outside offers of assistance and that Britain may have handled things differently: “We find that they don’t always do things the way we would do them.”
“They’ve been clear from the outset that this is something they’re going to manage themselves,” Hammond said. “There can be no doubting their commitment to dealing with Islamist terrorism.”
As he has since the outbreak of the Algeria crisis, Panetta reiterated the Obama administration’s commitment to go after terrorists. But he gave no specifics about how it intended to respond to the hostage-taking, or more broadly to the threat of terrorism in Mali and elsewhere in North Africa.