QuoteIslamist militants from Mali have attacked and taken control of a natural gas field partly owned by BP in southern Algeria, killing two and reportedly taking 41 people hostage, including seven Americans.
A group called the Katibat Moulathamine, or the Masked Brigade, called a Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its subsidiaries had carried out the operation on the Ain Amenas gas field, taking 41 hostages from nine or 10 different nationalities.
The group's claim could not be independently substantiated and typically there would be fewer than 20 foreign staff members on site on a typical day, along with hundreds of Algerian employees.
The group said the attack was in revenge for Algeria's support of France's operation against Al Qaeda-linked Malian rebels groups far to the southeast.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/16/islamist-militants-from-mali-reportedly-kidnap-8-foreigners-at-algerian-gas-1052027220/#ixzz2I9oYXhGv
This news is just breaking. It will be interesting to see how this develops but I can not see this coming out to a good conclusion.
Quote from: TheCommandTent on January 16, 2013, 11:39:34 AM
This news is just breaking. It will be interesting to see how this develops but I can not see this coming out to a good conclusion.
Hopefully it will end with a lot of dead terrorists.
I think it is a given. I hope too many other people don't get dead.
Bad for business.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 16, 2013, 12:09:57 PM
Quote from: TheCommandTent on January 16, 2013, 11:39:34 AM
This news is just breaking. It will be interesting to see how this develops but I can not see this coming out to a good conclusion.
Hopefully it will end with a lot of dead terrorists.
Well said.
Quote from: Centurion40 on January 16, 2013, 01:19:09 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 16, 2013, 12:09:57 PM
Quote from: TheCommandTent on January 16, 2013, 11:39:34 AM
This news is just breaking. It will be interesting to see how this develops but I can not see this coming out to a good conclusion.
Hopefully it will end with a lot of dead terrorists.
Well said.
+1
QuoteAt least 20 foreign hostages, including some Americans, escaped Thursday from an Al Qaeda-linked group who had taken over an Algerian natural gas complex in the Sahara desert, a security official reported.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Some of the Americans believed to have escaped have called home to their families, U.S. official sources tell Fox News.
The U.S. State Department is working to account for all of the Americans reported missing.
At least 20 gunmen attacked the vast complex early Wednesday in retaliation for France's military intervention against Al Qaeda-linked rebels in neighboring Mali. Militants phoned a Mauritanian news outlet Wednesday to say one of its affiliates had carried out the operation and that France should end its intervention in Mali to ensure the safety of the hostages.
The militants, who claimed to have 41 hostages, have been in a tense standoff since then, surrounded by the Algerian military, which has helicopters flying over the Ain Amenas gas plant, 800 miles south of the capital of Algiers.
Some 30 Algerian workers fled the complex earlier in the day, suggesting that the militants are having trouble managing the many hostages they have taken at the gas complex, the third largest in oil-rich Algeria.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/17/us-france-reportedly-in-talks-with-algeria-over-hostage-standoff/#ixzz2IEvwJb9K
This story continues to develop. It looks like some of the hostages were able to escape, possibly including some Americans.
Good.
At this moment, CNN is reporting this:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/17/world/mali-unrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
QuoteAlgiers, Algeria (CNN) -- Algeria launched an operation to free foreign hostages at a gas plant after it tried but failed to forge a resolution with the Islamist captors, the government said Thursday.
Now, the the military remains locked in an "on-going" operation against the militants, the Algerian communication minister said in a statement on Algerian State TV.
"Situation remains very serious and difficult," said a Twitter message from the British prime minister's office.
The Algerian army operation freed two Britons, a Kenyan and a French citizen, the Algerian Press Service said. The report also said there are a number of casualties in the action, but the exact number is not yet known. CNN could not independently confirm the report. CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported the French citizen is a nurse who worked on the site.
An Irish hostage is also free, the Irish government said, but it is not clear if he was liberated by the Algerian military effort.
Whereas my local paper is reporting the following:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/world/458010-algerian-military-storms-gas-plant-to-free-hostages
Quote
Reports suggest 35 captives, 15 militants dead
ALGIERS, Algeria — Algerian forces launched a military assault Thursday at a natural gas plant in the Sahara Desert, trying to free dozens of foreign hostages held by militants who have ties to Mali's rebel Islamists, diplomats and an Algerian security official said.
Yet information on the Algerian operation varied wildly and the conflicting reports that emerged from the remote area were impossible to verify independently. What did leak out prompted governments around the world to express deep concerns about the way Algeria tried to rescue the hostages, who were from at least nine different countries.
News of the bloody Algerian operation caused oil prices to rise $1.08 to $95.32 on the New York Mercantile Exchange and prompted energy companies like BP PLC and Spain's Compania Espanola de Petroleos SA to try to relocate energy workers at other Algerian plants.
The Algerian government said it was forced to intervene due to the militants' stubbornness and their desire to escape with the hostages. The communications minister said there were casualties in the military operation Thursday, but gave no details.
"An important number of hostages were freed and an important number of terrorists were neutralized and we regret the few dead and wounded, but we don't have numbers," minister Mohand Said Oubelaid said on national radio. "The operation to free the rest of the hostages still inside (the plant) is ongoing."
Never mind, 40Cent beat me to it.
I would repeat myself.
This story is a lie. Radical Islam died with Osama Bin Laden. It's not a threat any more. I think this is most likely just an unfortunate case of workplace violence.
You are funny.
It still seems that after all day of reporting on it in none of the major news outlets can confirm any numbers.
Quote from: TheCommandTent on January 17, 2013, 07:55:24 PM
It still seems that after all day of reporting on it in none of the major news outlets can confirm any numbers.
Reports are still mixed, as is often the case with stuff like this.
Apparently the Algerians moved on the terrorists without consulting with anyone else.
Well to be fair we didn't seem to be to damned interested in doing anything if the news coverage means anything. The media is much more interested in disarming the American public and Lance Armstrong's doping then speaking about yet another foreign debacle.
Quote from: Bison on January 17, 2013, 10:07:52 PM
Well to be fair we didn't seem to be to damned interested in doing anything if the news coverage means anything. The media is much more interested in disarming the American public and Lance Armstrong's doping then speaking about yet another foreign debacle.
Foreign policy is Obama's strongest accomplishment. No need to examine it closely. I'm sure he thinks that the less attention it gets, the better.
Quote from: LongBlade on January 17, 2013, 09:29:15 PM
Reports are still mixed, as is often the case with stuff like this.
Apparently the Algerians moved on the terrorists without consulting with anyone else.
On the one hand, I'm pleased that the Algerian government decisively; on the other hand I question the effectiveness of Algerian special forces, and can only wonder if the French BFST would have been more effective. Perhaps there was not enough time to get European or American special forces in place. I realize that any special forces intervention can be a crapshoot, but still, when hostage lives are in play, you want the best odds possible in your favour.
What CNN is reporting this morning:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/18/world/africa/algeria-hostage-crisis/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Quote
Algeria: Some hostages have been killed
(CNN) -- A total of 650 hostages have been freed by Algerian Special Forces from Islamist militants who seized a gas complex deep in the desert, according to the state media.
Of those taken hostage on Wednesday, 573 were Algerians, according to the state-run Algerian Press Service news agency. It said "over half" of the 132 foreigners workers held in the hostage crisis have been freed.
CNN has not independently confirmed the APS report.
State-run Algerian Radio earlier cited an official source as saying a major military raid launched Thursday was over but that there was "ongoing activity at various locations" near the plant, which "some of the hostage-takers are still using as a hideout."
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday morning that the Algerians were still pursuing terrorists and possibly hostages at the large and complex site in the Sahara.
Whereas:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/world/458010-algeria-news-service-60-hostages-missing-or-dead
Quote
Algeria news service: 60 hostages missing or dead
ALGIERS, Algeria — Algeria's state news service says about 60 foreign hostages are unaccounted for in the standoff with Islamist militants now entering its third day.
The news service said more than half the 132 foreign hostages had been freed, but the report could not account for the rest. The report Friday also said special forces had resumed negotiations after an assault Thursday at the gas plant deep in the Sahara.
A Mauritanian news site that frequently receives messages from al-Qaida linked militants said the hostage-takers in Algeria had offered to trade two captive Americans for two jailed terror figures in the United States.
One of the two, Omar Abdel Rahman, masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Earlier, the state news service released a radio report saying Algerian special forces have killed 18 militants and were continuing an assault Friday on the main gas plant.
Algeria's government has kept a tight grip on information, but it was clear that the militant assault that began Wednesday has killed at least six people from the factory — and perhaps many more.
Militants claimed that military helicopters opened fire Thursday when they were transporting hostages from the living quarters to the main factory area, and that 35 hostages and 15 militants died in the strafing.
An Algerian military raid to free hostages from at least 10 countries at a remote Sahara natural gas complex and wipe out their Islamist militant captors unleashed bloody chaos, and the British government said Friday that the situation was not yet over.
The fate of the fighters and many of the captives remained uncertain, and dueling claims from the military and the militants have muddied the world's understanding of an event that angered Western leaders.
By nightfall, Algeria's government said the raid was over. But Britain's Foreign Office said Friday morning that "the terrorist incident remains ongoing." It said it could give no further details. Manuel Valls, France's interior minister, said the situation remained murky.
Among those killed were Britons, Filipinos and Algerians. Terrorized hostages from Ireland and Norway trickled out of the Ain Amenas plant. Dozens more remained unaccounted for: Americans, Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians, Japanese, Algerians and the fighters themselves.
This is the latest from BBC.
QuoteForeign citizens involved
- Fourteen Japanese missing
- Eight Norwegians missing
- Significantly fewer than 30 Britons "at risk"; two Britons (from Scotland) believed to be safe
- Unknown number of Americans
- Possibly citizens of Romania, Thailand, the Philippines, Colombia, South Korea and Austria
- Two French citizens safe
- One Irish citizen from Northern Ireland safe
- One Kenyan safe
- One Austrian safe
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21071378 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21071378)
Apparently still lots of confusion over number of hostages and militants killed in the operation.
I'm doing some light reading on the military of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria. First off, that they call it the "People's National Army", and that it is a conscript army fills me with little confidence. They are supplied by Russia and China. The good news is that the Algerians had enough sense to return some of their equipment due to poor quality.
40 nailed it.
I'm sure the Algerian special forces are good guys, but it's unlikely they have the same level of training and equipment that France might have.
Since the bad guys are probably first cousins of the good guys it is probably better done
by the French, some but not all of whom are second cousins of the bad guys.
Get it out of the immediate family.
Quote from: Longdan on January 18, 2013, 02:59:52 PM
Since the bad guys are probably first cousins of the good guys it is probably better done
by the French, some but not all of whom are second cousins of the bad guys.
Get it out of the immediate family.
Poor choice of words on my part. I should have said the Algerian special forces are tough professionals. I didn't mean to say they were especially pro-American or acting much in our interests.
I do not know what to make of Algeria. Morocco has been a US ally when it suited them.
Quote from: Longdan on January 18, 2013, 03:52:44 PM
I do not know what to make of Algeria. Morocco has been a US ally when it suited them.
Algeria used to be part of what was called the Barbary Coast. It's when Smuck & Jarhead's theme song added the line "...to the Shores of Tripoli."
After that it got French.
The Algerian government fought a long, protracted and very bloody war against Islamist rebels in the 1990's before finally crushing them. Now, in the past couple of years, they have watched as the West has allowed, or even assisted, Islamist elements to take power all thoughout Africa. The attack on the oil complex took place on Algerian soil. I can fully understand why they took action without consulting anyone.