text: Image caption Algerian troops ended the siege on Saturday 
   
   Five suspected members of the Islamist group which held foreign and local workers hostage at an Algerian gas plant have been arrested, reports say. 
   
   The reports came a day after the Algerian authorities said all 32 hostage-takers had been killed at the In Amenas gas installation. 
   
   At least 25 bodies were found at the complex on Sunday, reports say. 
   
   It is unclear whether they were captors or captives. Officials say a definitive death toll will be released later. 
   
   On Saturday officials said least 23 staff at the facility had died during the four-day siege, with some Western workers still unaccounted for. 
   
   The siege was ended in a raid by troops on Saturday. 
   
   Officials said the army launched its assault after Islamist militants began killing foreign hostages. 
   
   UK Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama have blamed "terrorists" for the hostages' deaths. 
   
   We are ready to negotiate with the west and the Algerian government, provided they stop their bombing of Mali's Muslims Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Militant leader Profile: Mokhtar BelmokhtarTerror threat to last 'decades' - UK 
   
   And on Sunday French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the hostage-taking as an "act of war". 
   
   "What strikes me the most is that we're saying 'hostage-taking' but when there are so many people concerned, I think this is an act of war," he told French TV. 
   
   As Western leaders condemned the kidnappings, Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said Algeria would boost security at its energy installations without outside help. 
   
   "It is out of the question to allow foreign security forces to handle the security of our oil facilities," he said, quoted by Algeria's APS news agency. 
   
   During a visit to the affected plant, Mr Yousfi said it would resume production within two days. 
   
   'Talks call' 
   
   "Five terrorists were found still alive this morning," said the private Ennahar TV channel, quoted by AFP news agency. 
   
   The agency said residents of the nearby town of In Amenas were staying indoors, amid rumours that the army operation to end the siege was not over. 
   
   Algerian Communications Minister Mohammed Said said earlier that the militants were from six different countries, "nationals of Arab and African countries, and of non-African countries". 
   
   Mr Said added that a final death toll would be released in the coming hours. 
   
   Mauritanian website Sahara Media says Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the suspected organiser of the siege, has claimed responsibility for it in a video message. 
   
   The four-day siege 16 January: Militants attack two buses carrying In Amenas workers, killing two 
   
   They then go on to the gas facility's living quarters and main installation, seizing hostages 
   
   Some gas workers manage to escape 
   
   17 January: Algerian forces attack after the militants try to move their hostages in five 4x4s - four of the vehicles are destroyed in an air strike and an unknown number of hostages killed 
   
   18 January: Stalemate as Algerian forces surround the gas plant where the remaining hostages are held 
   
   19 January: Algerian forces launch a final assault after reports that the hostage-takers were killing their captives 
   
   20 January: Algeria says death toll of 32 hostage-takers and at least 23 captives is likely to rise Q&A: Hostage crisis 
   
   The website said the video - recorded on 17 January while the siege was still going on but not posted on the website - showed the militant leader saying he was prepared to negotiate with Western and Algerian leaders if operations against Islamists in Mali were stopped. 
   
   Three Britons are confirmed dead, and a further three are missing, feared dead. 
   
   UK officials were "working hard" to locate the missing, said Foreign Secretary William Hague. 
   
   "Everything seems to indicate" that a Colombian citizen resident in the UK is among the dead, the Colombian president has said. 
   
   But he added that information about Carlos Estrada, who worked for BP, was "not 100%". 
   
   Japanese officials said they had no confirmation of the fate of 10 nationals who remained unaccounted for, despite reports that nine had died. 
   
   Foreign Ministry spokesman Yoshihide Suga said a government aircraft would be sent to bring home seven others who had survived. 
   
   You fear the worst, you can't put into words how bad you feel, it's something you never want to go through again Alan Wright, British hostage UK hostages speak of Algeria ordeal 
   
   Two Malaysians are unaccounted for, as are five Norwegians. 
   
   State news agency APS said 685 Algerian workers and 107 out of 132 foreigners working at the plant had been freed, citing interior ministry figures. 
   
   The nationalities of some of the hostages killed are still not known. 
   
   Well-planned assault 
   
   The crisis began on Wednesday when militants attacked two buses carrying foreign workers to the remote site in south-eastern Algeria. A Briton and an Algerian reportedly died in the incident. 
   
   The militants then took Algerians and expatriates hostage at the complex, which was quickly surrounded by the Algerian army. 
   
   A statement from the kidnappers said the assault on the gas plant was launched in retaliation for French intervention against Islamist groups in neighbouring Mali. 
   
   However, France only decided last week to intervene militarily in Mali. Analysts say the assault on the gas facility was well-planned and would have required advance research, as well as possibly inside help. 
   
   The leader of the hostage-takers was a veteran fighter from Niger, named as Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri by the Mauritanian news agency ANI, which had been in contact with the militants. ||||| The death toll from the terrorist siege at a natural gas plant in the Sahara climbed to at least 81 on Sunday as Algerian forces searching the refinery for explosives found dozens more bodies, many so badly disfigured it was unclear whether they were hostages or militants, a security official said. 
   
   In this undated image made from video, a man looks out from a bus towards what appears to be smoke rising in the horizon at an unknown location in Algeria. An Algerian security official says de-mining... (Associated Press) 
   
   In this image made from video, a group of people believed to be hostages kneel in the sand with their hands in the air at an unknown location in Algeria. Algerian de-mining teams were scouring a gas refinery... (Associated Press) 
   
   Overseas Filipinos who were working at the sprawling oil field in Algeria which was attacked by terrorists, flash the "V" sign as they queue up at the Philippine Immigration upon arrival Sunday, Jan.... (Associated Press) 
   
   Two British hostages Peter, left, and Alan, right, (no family name available), are seen after being released, in a street of Ain Amenas, near the gas plant where they have been kidnapped by Islamic militants,... (Associated Press) 
   
   Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is embraced by Executive Vice President in Statoil, Margrethe Oevrum, Saturday Jan. 19, 2013, after his visit at the drop-in center in Bergen for relatives of... (Associated Press) 
   
   Algerian special police unit officers guard the entrance of an hospital located near the gas plant where hostages have been kidnapped by Islamic militants, in Ain Amenas, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Algeria's... (Associated Press) 
   
   In this image made from video, a group of people believed to be hostages kneel in the sand with their hands in the air at an unknown location in Algeria. An Algerian security official says de-mining squads... (Associated Press) 
   
   Algerian special forces stormed the plant on Saturday to end the four-day siege, moving in to thwart what government officials said was a plot by the Islamist militants to blow up the complex and kill all their hostages with mines sown throughout the site. 
   
   The government said after the assault that at least 32 extremists and 23 hostages were killed. Then, on Sunday, Algerian bomb squads sent in to blow up or defuse the explosives found 25 bodies, said the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. 
   
   "These bodies are difficult to identify. They could be the bodies of foreign hostages or Algerians or terrorists," the official said. 
   
   In addition, a wounded Romanian who had been evacuated died, raising the overall death toll to at least 81. 
   
   "Now, of course, people will ask questions about the Algerian response to these events, but I would just say that the responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched a vicious and cowardly attack," British Prime Minister David Cameron said. Three Britons were killed and another three were feared dead. 
   
   The dead were also known to include American, Filipino and French workers. Algerian authorities said 685 of their citizens, the backbone of the workforce, escaped without saying how many may have died. More than two dozen foreigners were unaccounted for. 
   
   The American who died in the siege has been identified as Frederick Buttaccio from the Houston suburb of Katy. U.S. officials told The Associated Press Buttaccio's remains were recovered Friday. 
   
   It was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final assault on the complex, which is run by the Algerian state oil company along with BP and Norway's Statoil. 
   
   Authorities said the bloody takeover was carried out Wednesday by 32 men from six countries, under the command from afar of the one-eyed Algerian bandit Moktar Belmoktar, founder of the Masked Brigade, based in neighboring Mali. The attacking force called itself "Those Who Sign in Blood." 
   
   The militants initially said the operation was payback for French military intervention in neighboring Mali, where al-Qaida-linked rebels are on the march, but later they said it was two months in the planning, long before France sent in troops. 
   
   Armed with heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, missiles and grenades, the militants singled out foreign workers at the plant, killing some of them on the spot and attaching explosive belts to others. 
   
   Algeria's tough and uncompromising response to the crisis was typical of its take-no-prisoners approach in confronting terrorists, favoring military action over negotiation. Algerian military forces, backed by attack helicopters, launched two assaults on the plant, the first one on Thursday. 
   
   The militants had "decided to succeed in the operation as planned, to blow up the gas complex and kill all the hostages," Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said said in a state radio interview. 
   
   The Masked Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of al-Qaida, according to a video obtained by a Mauritania-based website that sometimes carries messages of jihadists. 
   
   An audio recording of Algerian security forces speaking with the head of the kidnappers, Abdel Rahman al-Nigiri, on the second day of the drama indicated the hostage-takers were trying to organize a prisoner swap. 
   
   "You see our demands are so easy, so easy if you want to negotiate with us," al-Nigiri said in the recording broadcast by Algerian television. "We want the prisoners you have, the comrades who were arrested and imprisoned 15 years ago. We want 100 of them." 
   
   In another phone call, al-Nigiri said that half the militants had been killed by the Algerian army on Thursday and that he was ready to blow up the remaining hostages if security forces attacked again. 
   
   SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors videos from radicals, posted one showing al-Nigiri with what appeared to be an explosive belt around his waist. 
   
   The Algerians' use of forced raised an international outcry from some countries worried about their citizens. 
   
   But French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Sunday on French television: "The terrorists ... they're the ones to blame." 
   
   David Plouffe, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said that al-Qaida and al-Qaida-affiliated groups remain a threat in North Africa and other parts of the world, and that the U.S. is determined to help other countries destroy those networks. 
   
   Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Plouffe said the tragedy in Algeria shows once again "that all across the globe countries are threatened by terrorists who will use civilians to try and advance their twisted and sick agenda." 
   
   ___ 
   
   Elaine Ganley and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.
target: – Officials in Algeria have arrested five suspects in the Algerian gas-plant hostage crisis that left at least 81 people dead, report the BBC and AP. All five are members of an Islamist group, according to a private TV channel, and Algerian officials say each hailed from one of six different countries in Africa and the Arab world. A website in Mauritania claims that terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar is behind the attack, and recorded a video saying he would negotiate if operations were halted against Islamists in Mali. The death toll climbed to 81 today as Algerian forces scoured the refinery for explosives—but many bodies were so disfigured that troops couldn't identify them as militants or hostages. The militants "decided to succeed in the operation as planned, to blow up the gas complex and kill all the hostages" when troops launched a final assault to end the four-day siege, said an Algerian official.