Algeria: 5 kidnappers captured
2013-01-21 11:20
In Amenasb - Algerian troops reportedly found the bodies of
25 hostages and captured five kidnappers at a remote gas plant after a
bloodbath of captives that France called an "act of war" by Islamist
militants.
Algeria's government - the target of widespread foreign
dismay last week at its decision to send in the army - warned that the final
death toll would likely be higher, but was only set to give an official figure
later on Monday.
Governments scrambled to track down missing citizens as more
details emerged after Saturday's final showdown between special forces and
extremists who took hundreds hostage, demanding an end to French military
intervention in Mali.
No official images of the attack have been released. But
survivors took photos, seen by AFP, showing bodies riddled with bullets, some
with their heads half blown away by the impact of the gunfire.
"They were brutally executed," said an Algerian
who identified himself as Brahim, after escaping the ordeal, referring to
Japanese victims gunned down by the hostage-takers.
At least 23 foreigners and Algerians, mostly hostages, were
confirmed killed after the militants seized control of the In Amenas gas plant
deep in the Sahara desert on Wednesday.
Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed in the standoff, and
the army freed 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners, the interior ministry
said.
Ennahar television reported that another 25 bodies of
hostages were found on Sunday as security forces combed through the sprawling
complex run by Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil and Sonatrach of Algeria.
"Five terrorists were found still alive this morning [on
Sunday]" at the plant, the private TV station added. But "three
others are at large", station director Anis Rahmani told AFP.
"I fear that it [the toll] may be revised upward,"
Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said told a radio station, ahead of a
news conference at 1330 GMT on Monday by Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.
