Algerian forces attack militants holding hostages at remote gas complex
The Washington Post - 17 January 2013
Amid confusion about the situation at the Sahara Desert gas field more than 800 miles southeast of Algiers, the British government confirmed that Algerian forces were staging an “ongoing military operation” against the hostage takers.
Islamic militants have told a Mauritanian news
outlet that that 35 hostages were killed but seven are still alive after
Algerian military helicopters strafed a gas complex deep in the Sahara
in Algeria. The militants also said two of the survivors are Americans.
The British government did not receive prior notification of Thursday’s strike by Algerian forces despite an earlier request by Prime Minister David Cameron for advance notice of any military action, a British official said. Cameron “expressed concern” at the situation, the official said, adding that British leaders would rather have been notified of the Algerian assault in advance.
A spokesman for the Islamist militants holding the hostages claimed Thursday that Algerian aircraft attacked the site, killing some of the hostages and captors alike, according to a Mauritanian news agency that says it has been in contact with the militants.
In what it described as its final contact with the militants, Agence Nouakchott d’Information (ANI) later reported that the spokesman, speaking by telephone over loud explosions in the background, said the group was under attack from Algerian helicopters and ground forces. The Islamist group, which calls itself the Masked Brigade, threatened to execute the surviving hostages if the troops advanced any closer, ANI said. After those words, it said, the line went dead.
There was no immediate confirmation of the reported casualties from Algerian officials or Western governments.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said U.S. officials cannot confirm the loss of any American lives but are seeking more information from Algerian authorities.
“We condemn in the strongest terms a terrorist attack on BP personnel and facilities in Algeria and we are closely monitoring the situation,” Carney said. He added, “We are deeply concerned about any loss of innocent life and are seeking clarity from the government of Algeria.”
Pentagon officials traveling with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta in Europe said they were still trying to sort out conflicting reports about what happened at the gas complex, how many Americans may have been involved, and what course of action U.S. military forces might take in response.
“This is a very serious and sensitive situation,” George Little, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters in London. He said U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda was likely responsible for the attack.
“If you’re looking at an attack in this part of the world, of this scope and magnitude, then al-Qaeda has to be near or at the top of your list of suspects,” he said. Little said the precise number of Americans being held hostage “is not known.”
He declined to comment on reports that a U.S. surveillance drone had been deployed to Algeria to fly over the site.
In an interview Thursday with ABC News, Panetta said “about 100 people” were at the complex when the attack occurred but that it was unclear how many were taken hostage. He said initial reports were that the hostages included “somewhere in the vicinity” of seven or eight Americans. “Right now we just really don’t know,” he said.
The official news agency Algerie Presse Service, quoting “local sources,” said four foreign hostages and nearly 600 Algerian workers were “freed” Thursday in an operation carried out by Algerian troops. It did not elaborate.
Islamic militants have told a Mauritanian news
outlet that that 35 hostages were killed but seven are still alive after
Algerian military helicopters strafed a gas complex deep in the Sahara
in Algeria. The militants also said two of the survivors are Americans.
Earlier, Algerian news media reported that a number of the hostages had escaped. There were conflicting accounts on whether foreigners were among the escapees.
The British energy giant BP, which runs the gas facility jointly with Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s Sonatrach, said in a statement that the British and Algerian governments have informed it “that the Algerian army is attempting to take control of the In Amenas site.” But it said that “the situation remains unclear and we continue to seek updates from the authorities.”
“Sadly, there have been some reports of casualties but we are still lacking any confirmed or reliable information,” the statement said. “There are also reports of hostages being released or escaping.”
Algerian authorities said the hostage-taking occurred at a gas processing site called Tiguentourine, about 25 miles southwest of the town of In Amenas. The development is known as the In Amenas Gas Project and lies about 37 miles west of the Libyan border.
Citing a telephone interview with a spokesman for the militants, ANI, the private Mauritanian news service, reported on its French-language Web site Thursday morning that “some of the Western hostages were killed along with their captors during a bombardment by Algerian aircraft that targeted their place of detention.”
The agency said the militants were trying to move some of the hostages to a safer place on board vehicles belonging to the gas complex when Algerian aircraft bombed the convoy. The news service earlier quoted a militant as saying that Algerian helicopters had started attacking the complex, wounding some of the foreign hostages. ANI quoted the source as saying that “two Japanese have been wounded.”
ANI reported on its Arabic-language Web site that a spokesman for the militants said 35 hostages and 15 kidnappers were killed in the Algerian attack Thursday on the gas complex. The group said seven hostages were still alive, including three Belgians, two Americans, a Briton and a Japanese.
The spokesman said the leader of the militants, whose name was given only as Abu al-Baraa, was among the dead, and he warned that the captors would blow up the remaining hostages if Algerian troops approached, the agency reported.
The Paris-based television station France 24 conducted an interview with a man believed to be a hostage, who said the attackers were “heavily armed and forced several hostages to wear explosives belts.”
The state-run Algerian news agency said Thursday morning that 30 Algerian workers managed to flee their captors at the In Amenas gas complex. The Associated Press quoted an unidentified Algerian security official as saying at least 20 foreigners, including Americans and Europeans, escaped later in the day. Private Algerian news outlets reported that 15 foreigners were able to escape.
Fox News, citing unnamed officials, said at least 20 foreign hostages, including an unspecified number of Americans, escaped Thursday, and that some of the Americans have called home to their families.
A man claiming to be a spokesman for the militants told the BBC’s Arabic-language service that the hostages would be killed if a rescue were attempted.
“Storming the gas complex would be easy for the Algerian military, but the outcome of such an operation would be disastrous,” the militant said, according to the BBC.
The militants seized the hostages, including as many as seven Americans, in a brazen attack that they said was in retaliation for France’s military intervention in neighboring Mali, where French forces have joined Malian government troops in battling armed Islamists who have taken over much of northern Mali.
The militants claimed to have seized 41 foreigners at the complex. The Algerian government asserted that a little more than 20 foreigners were captured.
At least one foreign worker was reported killed in the early morning assault on the vast In Amenas gas field near Algeria’s eastern border with Libya. The attack, attributed to a unit of al-Qaeda’s offshoot in North Africa, raised concerns about a broadening of Mali’s civil war five days after French forces joined the country’s fight against Islamist insurgents.
Militants claiming to belong to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said they seized the hostages to punish Algeria for letting France use its airspace to launch strikes and support operations in Mali. The group said it would free the detainees only after France ceased all military involvement in Mali.
“Algeria’s participation in the war on the side of France betrays the blood of the Algerian martyrs who fell in the fight against the French occupation,” Mauritania’s Nouakchott News Agency quoted a militant spokesman as saying.
Algeria, which has sought to avoid entanglement in the Mali conflict, dispatched several hundred troops to the complex late Wednesday, sealing off the area.
If AQIM’s role in the attack is confirmed, it would signal the entry into the conflict of one of al-Qaeda’s most notorious commanders in North Africa — Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan’s civil war and a terrorist leader regarded as one of the most violent and best-armed on the continent.
“He’s a serious player and a dangerous person who is very close to al-Qaeda historically,” said Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University terrorism expert.
Belmokhtar’s faction is thought to have commandeered vast quantities of weapons from Libyan military stockpiles after the collapse of Moammar Gaddafi’s government last year.
Details of the attack on the gas complex remained murky, but Algerian news accounts said heavily armed assailants burst into the facility about 5 a.m. The attackers were in at least three vehicles and took dozens of hostages at a production facility and an administration building.
The Algerian Interior Ministry said that at least one person was dead, but it did not specify the nationality.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke about the situation to the U.S. ambassador in Algeria and the Algerian prime minister, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday.
“The best information we have at this time is that U.S. citizens are among the hostages,” Nuland said. “In order to protect their safety, I’m not going to get into numbers, I’m not going to get into names.”
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is one of the terrorist network’s largest, best-funded and most heavily armed offshoots, amassing millions of dollars in ransom payments from earlier hostage-takings.
Counterterrorism experts described Belmokhtar as leader of AQIM’s southern branch and said he has deep ties to al-Qaeda’s main branch. Belmokhtar was born in Algeria in 1972 and traveled to Afghanistan as a teenager to join training camps run by extremists. In recent years, as al-Qaeda franchises in Africa have become more active, his profile has risen.
Belmokhtar has been involved in brokering the release of European and Canadian hostages, according to Andrew Black, an American businessman who has studied Belmokhtar and written a biographical article on him for the Jamestown Foundation.
Black said in an interview that the brazenness and apparent sophistication of Wednesday’s siege was stunning.
“To me, it’s really concerning,” Black said. “He hasn’t done something like this for years.”
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and adviser to the Obama administration, said the attack could force Algeria to take a more aggressive role against a militant movement that has stepped up attacks on both sides of the Algeria-Mali border in recent months.
“The Algerian government has been until now very, very cautious and reticent about moving against militant strongholds in Mali,” said Riedel, who is a scholar at the Brookings Institution. “That position is going to be hard to maintain now.
Faiola reported from London. Edward Cody in Paris and Craig Whitlock in Rome contributed to this report.
Labels: Africa, Britain, Conflict, France, Islamism, Security, Terrorism, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, January 17, 2013
