5 missing in Algeria hostage crisis
2013-01-22 18:26
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Algeria
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Algeria - Algerian authorities were searching on Tuesday
for five foreigners still missing from a bloody hostage crisis at the In Amenas
gas plant, which was slowly being brought back on stream, a security source
said.
"Still no news about the five missing
foreigners," the source told AFP, after the final assault launched by
Algerian special forces on Saturday against the Islamist militants who seized
hundreds of hostages when they overran the plant.
"Work to restart the complex has begun," the
same source said, after a demining and clearance operation at the sprawling
desert site was completed.
"But we will have to wait for a week before
everything returns to normal," he added, as there were complicated
technical procedures involved in resuming gas production.
Algeria's Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi had said on
Sunday that the wet gas production plant would restart "in the next two
days," adding the damage caused during the four-day crisis was "not
significant".
Employees not being treated for shock have been called
back to the plant to help with restarting it and specialists have also been
brought in from other sites, the security source said.
Thirty-seven foreigners of eight different nationalities
and an Algerian were killed, some of them brutally executed, by the
hostage-takers, who were demanding the release of Islamist prisoners and an end
to France's intervention in Mali.
