ALGIERS, Algeria — As Algerian army helicopters
clattered overhead deep in the Sahara desert, Islamist militants hunkered down
for the night in a natural gas complex they had assaulted Wednesday morning,
killing two people and taking dozens of foreigners hostage in what could be the
first spillover from France’s intervention in Mali.
The Algerian army has surrounded the complex and about 1,000 miles (1,600
kilometers) from the coast, there is no obvious way for the kidnappers to escape
in their four wheel drive vehicles with their hostages.
A militant group claimed responsibility for the rare attack on one of
oil-rich Algeria’s energy facilities, saying it came in revenge for the North
African nation’s support for France’s military operation against al-Qaida-linked
rebels in neighboring Mali. The militants said they were holding 41 foreigners
from the energy complex, including seven Americans.
The group — called Katibat Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade — phoned a
Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its affiliates had carried out the
operation at the Ain Amenas gas field, located 800 miles (1,300 kilometers)
south of Algiers, the Algerian capital, and that France must cease its
intervention in Mali to ensure the safety of the hostages.
BP, together with the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian state oil
company Sonatrach, operates the gas field. A Japanese company, JGC Corp,
provides services for the facility as well.
In Rome, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared that the U.S. “will
take all necessary and proper steps” to deal with the attack in Algeria. He
would not detail what such steps might be but condemned the action as “terrorist
attack” and likened it to al-Qaida activities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in
the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Algeria’s top security official, Interior Minister Daho Ould Kabila, said
that “security forces have surrounded the area and cornered the terrorists, who
are in one wing of the complex’s living quarters.”
He said one Briton and one Algerian were killed in the attack, while a
Norwegian and two other Britons were among the six wounded.
“We reject all negotiations with the group, which is holding some 20 hostages
from several nationalities,” Kabila said on national television, raising the
specter of a possible armed assault to try to free the hostages.
The head of a catering company working on the base told the French Journal de
Dimanche that helicopters were flying over the complex and the army waited
outside. There were even reports of clashes between the two sides and a member
of the militant group told the Mauritanian news outlet they had already repelled
one assault by Algerian soldiers late Wednesday night.
It was not immediately possible to rectify the discrepancies in the number of
reported hostages. Their identities were also unclear, but Ireland announced
that they included a 36-year-old married Irish man and Japan, Britain and the
U.S. said their citizens were involved as well. A Norwegian woman said her
husband called her saying that he had been taken hostage.
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