ALGERIA: 37 died in hostage crisis says Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal

Record ID: 574155

  • Title: ALGERIA: 37 died in hostage crisis says Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal
  • Date: 21st January 2013
  • Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA, (JANUARY 21, 2013) (REUTERS) PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCY ALGERIAN PRIME MINISTER ABDELMALEK SELLAL ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE DETAILS OF BACKGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALGERIAN PRIME MINISTER, ABDELMALEK SELLAL, SAYING : "Actually this group which had 32 terrorists, about one third of them were Algerians and the rest were from eight nationalities" PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES OF SELLAL (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALGERIAN PRIME MINISTER, ABDELMALEK SELLAL, SAYING : "The final results of this operation... The base had 790 workers, around 134 of them were foreigners... (in French) 136 expats from 26 nationalities. Most of them were freed, (in Arabic) except five foreigners that we still do not know where are they exactly, maybe they are still hiding, or went to another place, or maybe they are dead, God have mercy on them" JOURNALIST QUESTIONING PRIME MINISTER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALGERIAN PRIME MINISTER, ABDELMALEK SELLAL, SAYING : "About the figure of the victims, 37 victims are foreigners and Algerians, of eight nationalities, seven of these 37 victims are still unidentified" SELLAL LOOKING AT MAP VIEW OF ALGIERS
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA6PRT3JOKM6B2FLV2MNDT31NTL
  • Story Text: A total of 37 foreigners and an Algerian died at a desert gas plant and five are still missing after a four-day hostage-taking, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said on Monday (January 21).
    Sellal said the attack had been conducted by a 'group of mercenaries mostly foreigners'. Algerian forces ended the incident by storming the plant on Saturday.
    Sellal also told a news conference that 29 Islamists had been killed during the siege and three were taken alive. Most of the gunmen were from various states of north and west Africa.
    "Actually this group which had 32 terrorists, about one third of them were Algerians and the rest were from eight nationalities" Sellal said.
    With some bodies burned beyond recognition and Algerian forces still combing the sprawling site, some details were still unclear or at odds with figures from other governments.
    The siege has shaken confidence in the security of Algeria's vital energy industry and drawn attention to Islamist militancy across the Sahara, where France has sent troops to neighbouring Mali to fight rebels who have taken control of the North of the country.
    Five foreigners are still missing and 7 of the dead unidentified, Sellal added.
    The raid on the plant, which was home to expatriate workers from Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil, Japanese engineering firm BGC Corp and others, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara.
    Algeria, scarred by the civil war with Islamist insurgents in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, insisted from the start of the crisis there would be no negotiation in the face of terrorism. France especially needs close cooperation from Algeria to crush Islamist rebels in northern Mali.
    In a reference to Western concerns that the Sahara and the dry grasslands of the Sahel to its south may become a haven for its Islamist enemies as Afghanistan was under the Taliban before 2001, Sellal said Algeria would not become "Sahelistan
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