Hostages: Algeria mulls international force
2013-01-17 15:24
Algiers - Algeria's government searched desperately on Thursday
for a way to end a desert standoff with Islamic militants who have taken dozens
of foreigners hostage at a natural gas complex, turning to tribal leaders among
Algerian Tuaregs and contemplating an international force.
The government was in talks throughout the night with the US
and France over whether international forces could help against the militants,
who have said 41 foreigners, including seven Americans, were being held after
the assault on one of oil-rich Algeria's energy facilities, 800 miles from the
capital of Algiers and 1 600km from the coast. Two foreigners were killed.
The official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about
the attack, said Algerian officials also contacted tribal elders among Algerian
Tuaregs, who are believed to have close ties with Islamist militants linked to
al-Qaeda. The official said the government hoped the Tuaregs might help
negotiate an end to the standoff.
The group claiming responsibility - called Katibat
Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade - said the attack on Wednesday was in
revenge for Algeria's support of France's military operation against al-Qaeda-linked
rebels in neighbouring Mali.
Militants phoned a Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its
affiliates had carried out the operation at the Ain Amenas gas field, and that
France should end its intervention in Mali to ensure the safety of the
hostages.
But the militants themselves appeared to have no escape, cut
off by surrounding troops and army helicopters overhead.
BP, the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian state oil
company Sonatrach, operate the gas field. A Japanese company, JGC Corp,
provides services for the facility as well.
20 well armed gunmen
In Rome on Wednesday, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta
declared that the US "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-Qaeda activities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the United States on September
11 2001.
It was not immediately possible to account for the
discrepancies in the number of reported hostages. Their identities also were
not clear, but Ireland announced that they included a 36-year-old married Irish
man. Japan, Britain and the US said their citizens were taken. A Norwegian
woman said her husband called her saying that he had been taken hostage.
Hundreds of Algerians work at the plant and were also
captured in the attack, but the Algerian state news agency reported they were
gradually released unharmed on Wednesday.
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".
Kabila said the roughly 20 well armed gunmen were from
Algeria itself, operating under orders from Moktar Belmoktar, al-Qaeda's
strongman in the Sahara.
In Washington, US State Department spokesperson Victoria
Nuland confirmed that "US citizens were among the hostages".
- SAPA
