Algeria hostage crisis: Britons die in bungled rescue

David Cameron has been warned to expect “multiple” Britons to be among up to
34 gas workers killed in the West’s worst hostage crisis in a generation.

By James Kirkup and Gordon Rayner

10:39PM GMT 17 Jan 2013

A botched military attack on a BP gas plant in Algeria, where al-Qaeda kidnappers were holding 41 westerners, led to a bloodbath as helicopter gunships opened fire on the compound.

The attack was carried out against the wishes of Mr Cameron and other Western leaders, who had urged Algeria to negotiate with the kidnappers after the captives said bombs had been strapped to their bodies.

At least one Briton was reported to have died, following the death on Wednesday of another Briton when the hostages were taken.

Senior Downing Street sources said they were braced for “multiple British casualties”. Mr Cameron warned that the country “should be prepared for the possibility of further bad news”.

On Thursday night the hostage crisis appeared to be approaching a disastrous climax amid growing international anger over Algeria’s handling of the situation. According to one report, 34 hostages were dead, but conflicting accounts suggested six westerners had been killed.

Reports from Algerian state news agency APS claimed that the Algerian army was in control of just part of the natural gas complex.

Local officials in the southeastern region of Illizi had said the army’s raid was over late Thursday, but later clarified that only the residential area, where the majority of the hostages were being held, had been secured, saying the army was still surrounding the gas facility itself.

More than eight hours after the attack began, Downing Street was still unclear about precisely what had taken place. Mr Cameron said: “It’s a fluid situation, it’s ongoing, it’s very uncertain.”

In a statement Thursday night, Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, said: “Although details have yet to become final I am afraid we should be under no illusion that there will be some bad and distressing news to follow from this terrorist attack.”

At least one Briton, Stephen McFaul, 36, an engineer from Belfast, escaped from the In Amenas compound, but the fate of several others was unclear.

Another man from Northern Ireland and at least one Scot were thought to be among seven western hostages still inside the compound.

Western governments with citizens involved urged Algeria to exhaust all avenues of negotiation before considering a military solution. Some of the hostages themselves had called television stations on mobile phones to make their own pleas for talks to begin. They said they had been forced to wear explosive belts and urged the soldiers surrounding the plant to fall back so negotiations could start.

But the Algerians, who have a long track record of taking a hard-line approach to kidnappings, decided to launch a full-scale attack without consulting any Western leaders.

According to French government sources, the extremists started killing hostages “in an appalling fashion” after the assault began. Downing Street said the Algerians refused repeated requests to be consulted about a rescue mission, and only informed Britain about the operation after it had begun.

Mr Cameron’s spokesman openly admitted that Britain was unhappy with the Algerians’ actions.

A US military drone was said to be monitoring the gas compound, but the White House said President Barack Obama was still “seeking clarity” from the Algerians about the situation. Japan urged the Algerians to halt its military operations “immediately” amid “strong concerns” for the safety of Japanese citizens at the plant.

François Hollande, the French president, said he did not have “sufficient information” about the rescue attempt. French government sources suggested that the majority of the 41 Western hostages had died. The Norwegian government said it had no information about the nine Norwegians it believed were involved.

In a telephone call at around 11.30am yesterday, Abdelmalek Sellal, the Algerian prime minister, told Mr Cameron that his forces had no choice but to act “immediately”, No10 said.

In a second phonecall yesterday, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The PM emphasised the continuing need for the Algerian security forces to do everything they could to safeguard hostages.”

Mohamed Said, Algeria’s communications minister, said: “There will be neither negotiation nor blackmail nor respite in the fight against terrorism.” He acknowledged that there had been “several deaths and injuries” among the hostages.