PARIS — Islamist militants took several hostages from a foreign-operated gas field in an attack in eastern Algeria early Wednesday morning, calling the abductions a retaliation for the French-led military intervention in neighboring Mali.
Estimates on the number of potential hostages varied widely, with some unconfirmed news reports asserting that as many as 41 people, including several Americans, had been kidnapped from the site in In Amenas, near the Libyan border. Several others were wounded, and at least two deaths were reported. Algerian security forces were dispatched to the area, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
A Japanese official confirmed that Japanese nationals were involved, and the Irish Foreign Ministry said one Irish citizen had been kidnapped.
Fighters with links to Al Qaeda’s African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Mauritanian and Algerian news agencies. They quote militants claiming that the kidnappings were a response to the Algerian government’s decision to allow France to use its airspace to conduct strikes against Islamists in Mali.
Islamist groups and bandits have long operated in the deserts of western Africa, and a collection of Islamists have occupied the vast expanse of northern Mali since last year. In retaliation for the French-led effort to drive them out, those groups, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, have pledged to strike against France’s interests on the continent and abroad, as well as those of nations backing the French operations. In France, security has been reinforced at airports, train stations and other public spaces.
The militant groups are financed in large part through ransoms paid for the freeing of Western hostages, and regular kidnappings have occurred in the West African desert in recent years. Seven French nationals are presently being held there.
The attack on Wednesday was carried out by a “heavily armed” group of “terrorists” traveling aboard three vehicles, the Interior Ministry statement said, and targeted a bus transporting foreign workers to a nearby airport at 5 a.m. An “indeterminate number” of hostages were taken, the ministry said, while one foreigner was killed and six people were wounded, including two security guards and two police officers.
A member of the Algerian Parliament said four Japanese and one French national were kidnapped, Agence France-Presse reported.
The gas field in In Amenas is a joint venture operated by the British multinational BP, the Norwegian group Statoil and the Algerian government-owned Sonatrach. The Japanese engineering firm JGC provides services there.
BP confirmed a “security incident” had occurred at the gas field and said in a statement that it was arranging an emergency “help line for relatives.” .The British Foreign Office said in a statement that “we can confirm that British nationals are caught up in this incident.”
Algeria, which shares a desert border of several hundred miles with Mali, has resisted the possibility of organizing an armed intervention into the Malian north, fearing that fighting could spill into Algeria or drive militants into the country. Algeria has authorized French jets flying missions in Mali to cross Algerian airspace, however.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb began as an insurgent group fighting the secular Algerian government in the 1990s.
Estimates on the number of potential hostages varied widely, with some unconfirmed news reports asserting that as many as 41 people, including several Americans, had been kidnapped from the site in In Amenas, near the Libyan border. Several others were wounded, and at least two deaths were reported. Algerian security forces were dispatched to the area, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
A Japanese official confirmed that Japanese nationals were involved, and the Irish Foreign Ministry said one Irish citizen had been kidnapped.
Fighters with links to Al Qaeda’s African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Mauritanian and Algerian news agencies. They quote militants claiming that the kidnappings were a response to the Algerian government’s decision to allow France to use its airspace to conduct strikes against Islamists in Mali.
Islamist groups and bandits have long operated in the deserts of western Africa, and a collection of Islamists have occupied the vast expanse of northern Mali since last year. In retaliation for the French-led effort to drive them out, those groups, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, have pledged to strike against France’s interests on the continent and abroad, as well as those of nations backing the French operations. In France, security has been reinforced at airports, train stations and other public spaces.
The militant groups are financed in large part through ransoms paid for the freeing of Western hostages, and regular kidnappings have occurred in the West African desert in recent years. Seven French nationals are presently being held there.
The attack on Wednesday was carried out by a “heavily armed” group of “terrorists” traveling aboard three vehicles, the Interior Ministry statement said, and targeted a bus transporting foreign workers to a nearby airport at 5 a.m. An “indeterminate number” of hostages were taken, the ministry said, while one foreigner was killed and six people were wounded, including two security guards and two police officers.
A member of the Algerian Parliament said four Japanese and one French national were kidnapped, Agence France-Presse reported.
The gas field in In Amenas is a joint venture operated by the British multinational BP, the Norwegian group Statoil and the Algerian government-owned Sonatrach. The Japanese engineering firm JGC provides services there.
BP confirmed a “security incident” had occurred at the gas field and said in a statement that it was arranging an emergency “help line for relatives.” .The British Foreign Office said in a statement that “we can confirm that British nationals are caught up in this incident.”
Algeria, which shares a desert border of several hundred miles with Mali, has resisted the possibility of organizing an armed intervention into the Malian north, fearing that fighting could spill into Algeria or drive militants into the country. Algeria has authorized French jets flying missions in Mali to cross Algerian airspace, however.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb began as an insurgent group fighting the secular Algerian government in the 1990s.