Sunday Times 2
Algeria desert stand-off as Islamists hole up with hostages
View(s):IN AMENAS, Algeria, Jan 19 (AFP) -Islamist gunmen were holed up with an unknown number of foreign hostages today at a remote gas plant in the Algerian desert, as the world awaited the military’s next move to free them.
More than 72 hours after the heavily armed militants staged a deadly raid on the complex, and two days after Algerian special forces launched a botched rescue bid widely condemned as hasty, there appeared to be a stand-off in the Sahara.
“There’s no change since yesterday; the situation remains the same,” an Algerian security official told AFP as army helicopters overflew the In Amenas gas plant near the border with Libya.
On Friday, a security official said troops were trying to reach a “peaceful” end to the crisis, before “neutralising the terrorist group that is holed up in the plant and freeing a group of hostages still being held there.”Amid a virtual news blackout in Algiers, harshly criticised by local media, world leaders took a tough stand on the fate of the remaining hostages.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington would “take all necessary steps to protect our people” from the threat of Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in north Africa.
“Whether or not that involves assisting others with military operations, whether it involves developing in a cooperative way operations there, those are areas that I think remain to be decided,” he told the BBC.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida of her deep concern “about those who remain in danger. Utmost care must be taken to preserve innocent life.”At least one American has been confirmed dead.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered his government to do everything possible to ensure the safety of those Japanese unaccounted for in “an extremely despicable” incident that “can never be forgiven.”"I would like you to do your best to confirm the safety of the Japanese and rescue them by using every possible means,” Abe told top officials after cutting short a trip to Southeast Asia.
An Algerian security official put the number of foreign hostages at 10, but more workers remain unaccounted for, including at least 10 Japanese and eight Norwegians.
Norway’s Statoil, which jointly operates the site with Britain’s BP and Sonatrach of Algeria, said two Norwegians have been found alive but six others remain unaccounted for.
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