UK: Terrorist incident ongoing in Algeria
2013-01-18 11:51
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London - Britain said on Friday that the "terrorist
incident" was ongoing at an Algerian gas plant where dozens of foreigners
were feared dead after an army assault against their Islamist hostage-takers.
"The terrorist incident in Algeria remains
ongoing," said a Foreign Office spokesperson, adding that British Prime
Minister David Cameron would chair a meeting of Britain's COBRA emergency
committee on Friday.
"As the prime minister and foreign secretary have said,
to the best of our knowledge on the information given to us by the Algerian
government one British national has sadly been killed," the spokesperson said.
"We are not in a position to give further information
at this time. But the prime minister has advised we should be prepared for bad
news."
One Briton was killed when the gunmen seized the hostages at
the southern Algerian complex on Wednesday in an attack they said had been in
retaliation for the French intervention in neighbouring Mali.
Media reports said as many as 20 Britons may be unaccounted
for at the BP-operated In Amenas plant.
The Foreign Office spokesperson said Cameron had spoken twice
on Thursday to Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.
The British premier was not given prior warning of the
Algerian army offensive, and would have preferred to have been consulted, his
spokesman said Thursday.
