1/17/13, "Foreigners abducted by Islamist militants in Algeria," BBC
"Two foreign nationals,
one of them British, have been killed and more than 20 taken hostage in
an attack by Islamist militants on a gas facility in eastern Algeria,
state media report.
Several people were wounded when a bus was targeted as it carried workers from the facility, near In Amenas. After being repelled, the militants travelled to the facility's residential area, where they seized other workers.
Militants linked to al-Qaeda claim to have been behind the incident....
Earlier, a group known as the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade told the AFP news agency that it had kidnapped the workers.
The Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade is believed to be led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar - also known as Abu al-Abbas - who was a senior commander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb before late last year, when he set up his own armed group after apparently falling out with other leaders.
His new group is also known as the Signed-in Blood Battalion, a spokesman for whom told the Mauritanian Sahara Media website that it had "captured 41 Westerners, including seven Americans, two French citizens, two British citizens and two Japanese"....
The In Amenas gas field is operated by the Algerian state oil company, Sonatrach, along with Statoil and the British oil company BP. It is about 1,300km (800 miles) south-east of the capital, Algiers,
and about 60km west of the Libyan border.
The attack came after militants vowed to avenge France's military intervention in Mali, where its forces have been battling Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) for the past week.
Algeria has been allowing French aircraft to use its air space.
The Algerian interior ministry said a heavily-armed "terrorist group" using three vehicles had attacked the bus carrying workers from the In Amenas gas field at about 05:00 (04:00 GMT).
The attack was "repelled by the escort units", but one foreign national was killed and six people - two foreigners, two police and two security personnel - were wounded, a statement said.
"After their failed attempt, the terrorist group headed to the complex's living quarters and took a number of workers with foreign nationalities hostage," the ministry added....
A list of demands had been sent to the Algerian authorities, and the hostages would be killed if troops attempted to rescue them, the spokesman added.
''Storming the gas complex would be easy for the Algerian military, but the outcome of such an operation would be disastrous," he warned."...
.
No comments:
Post a Comment