'Hostages killed' during Algerian rescue mission

AN Algerian air strike has killed 34 hostages, some of them Westerners, and 15 of their Islamist kidnappers at a desert gas field, a spokesman for the kidnappers has been quoted as saying.

"Thirty-four hostages and 15 kidnappers were killed in an (air) raid by the Algerian army,' the spokesman told the ANI news agency in remarks that have not been independently confirmed.

The source said Westerners were among the dead, but did not elaborate.

Also killed was Abu al-Baraa, who led the operation in which 41 foreigners and scores of Algerians were seized.

The spokesman said Algerian aircraft attacked the kidnappers when they tried to "transport some of the hostages in vehicles to a location to the south".

The Islamist gunmen, who were holding 41 Western hostages on a gas field, had demanded that Algerian troops surrounding the facility withdraw before negotiations for their release can begin.

The kidnapping is one of the largest ever undertaken by a militant group in North Africa.

The Islamists said they were holding 41 hostages, including French, British and Japanese citizens as well as seven Americans, in reprisal for the French assault against Islamists in neighbouring Mali and Algeria's co-operation.

The Briton and an Algerian were killed in the attack, Algeria's Interior Minister, Dahou Ould Kablia, said. Six others were wounded: another Briton, a Norwegian and a Scot, as well as an Algerian security agent and two policemen.

Speaking in Sydney, British Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed scepticism about claims the raid was retaliation for France's offensive in Mali. "That is a convenient excuse, but usually operations like this take longer to plan," he said.

"Whatever excuse is being used by terrorists and murderers, there is no excuse. This is the cold-blooded murder of people going about their business."

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington would take "necessary and proper steps" in the hostage situation, and refused to rule out military action.

The insurgents, members of a group called the "Signatories for Blood" and led by a one-eyed Islamist known as Mr Marlboro, launched their raid at 5am on the In Amenas gas field, close to Algeria's border with Libya. The man behind the group claiming responsibility is a veteran jihadist known for seizing hostages.

Algerian Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said Algiers refused to negotiate with the "terrorists", who he said were surrounded by the army and security services.

The group appeared to want to leave the country with the hostages, which Algiers had rejected, he said.

The In Amenas gas field is jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway's Statoil and state-run Algerian energy firm Sonatrach.

A worker at the scene said the group was demanding freedom for 100 Islamists held in Algeria in exchange for the Western hostages. "The assailants have demanded that these Islamists be taken to northern Mali," he said.

"Signatories for Blood" claimed responsibility in a post to the Mauritanian website Alakhbar, saying it was in retaliation for the French intervention in Mali and Algeria's co-operation.

"Algeria was chosen for this operation to teach (President Abdelaziz) Bouteflika that we will never accept the humiliation of the Algerian people's honour . . . by opening Algerian airspace to French planes," it said.

The group called for an end to the French offensive.

The attack took place at dawn, when armed Islamists targeted a bus carrying oil workers to the In Amenas airport. Fought off by security escorts, they took hostages at the gas field's residential compound. A Statoil official said 12 employees had been "implicated" in the hostage-taking. The company said it had just under 20 staff members at the facility.

A French catering company said 150 of its Algerian employees were being held at the complex.

"The information I have is that a group of around 60 terrorists from neighbouring countries attacked the base overnight," CIS Catering's executive director Regis Arnoux told Journal du Dimanche. "They took all the expatriates hostage, regardless of nationality, and tied them up. The Algerian staff are being held inside the site."

Algerian media reported last night that 30 local workers and 15 foreigners managed to escape from the plant after dozens more Algerian workers were released by the hostage-takers.

US officials have struggled to devise a response to the many Islamist militant groups, some with ties to al-Qa'ida, across Africa. "We have been concerned about Mali, because they would use it as a base of operations to do exactly what happened in Algeria," Mr Panetta said.

US officials confirmed suspicions that al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb was involved. Al-Qa'ida has rarely taken American hostages.

The US has launched operations to free hostages taken by militants in Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere, but no rescue has involved large numbers of hostages.