ALGERIA: Algerian authorities block access to desert gas plant involved in hostage siege

Record ID: 574153

  • Title: ALGERIA: Algerian authorities block access to desert gas plant involved in hostage siege
  • Date: 20th January 2013
  • Summary: UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION APPROXIMATELY 10KM FROM IN AMENAS, ALGERIA (JANUARY 20, 2013) (REUTERS) TRAFFIC NEAR CHECKPOINT IN THE DESERT VARIOUS OF VEHICLES PARKED NEAR CHECKPOINT VARIOUS OF SECURITY FOCES WALKING IN THE ROAD AT CHECKPOINT VARIOUS OF MILITARY VEHICLES DRIVING DOWN ROAD TOWARDS CHECKPOINT VARIOUS OF SMOKE IN THE DISTANCE, SAID TO BE FROM DESERT GAS PLANT
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEI81KUGB2RUOH5654660630DF
  • Story Text: Algeria prevented journalists from travelling to the In Amenas gas plant on Sunday (January 20) saying troops were securing the site, clearing mines and looking for more potential bodies.
    Algeria warned that the hostage death toll from a siege at the desert gas plant would rise, after its troops staged a final assault which killed all the remaining Islamist gunmen.
    France acknowledged the death toll would be high but cautioned against criticising Algeria's military response, saying it had faced an intolerable situation.
    Algeria's Interior Ministry had reported on Saturday that 23 hostages and 32 militants were killed during assaults launched by Algerian special forces to end the crisis, with 107 foreign hostages and 685 Algerian hostages freed.
    However, Algeria's Minister of Communication, Mohamed Said, said this would rise when final numbers were issued.
    Details are only slowly emerging on what happened during the siege, which marked a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces are battling Islamist militants across the Sahara desert in Mali.
    The Islamist militants seized the remote compound near the Libyan border, taking a large number of hostages. Said reported that the militants had six different nationalities and the operation to clear the plant of mines laid by the hostage-takers was still under way.
    Believed to be among the 32 dead militants was their leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, a Nigerian close to al Qaeda-linked commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar, presumed mastermind of the raid.
    Some Western governments expressed frustration at not being informed of the Algerian authorities' plans to storm the complex. Algeria, scarred by a civil war with Islamist insurgents in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, had insisted there would be no negotiation in the face of terrorism.
    Belmokhtar claimed responsibility for the hostage taking on behalf of al Qaeda in a video on a Mauritanian website in which he said he was ready to negotiate with Algeria and the west if they agree to stop the bombing of Islamists in Mali.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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