Algeria kidnappers still holed in gas field
2013-01-18 13:55
Algiers - Some Islamist hostage-takers were still holed up
at a remote gas field in Algeria on Friday, a security source said, adding that
their claim of dozens of people killed in an army rescue bid was
"fantasy."
"There is still a group holed up" at the In Amenas
gas production complex in the south-eastern desert, the source told AFP by
telephone, adding that it was "difficult to discuss an ongoing operation".
The source condemned the Mauritanian news agency ANI, to
which the Islamists gave their account of events on Thursday, claiming 34
captives and 14 hostage-takers had been killed.
"The terrorists made contact with ANI to give them this
exclusive report, from which we got this fantasy toll," the source said.
Communications Minister Mohamed Said had said late on
Thursday that the assault launched by Algerian special forces left
"some" of the hostages dead and wounded, but freed a "large
number".
A lack of concrete information over what Britain called an
ongoing "terrorist incident" at the BP-operated In Amenas field has
frayed nerves in Tokyo and other world capitals eager for news of the fate of
dozens of hostages still unaccounted for.
