770 Workers Rescued as Algerian Hostage Crisis Ends In Violent Deaths

7 Comments

1. 

   Oui on January 19, 2013 at 6:19 am

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   The Algerian GIA and later GSPC morphed into AQIM. The leader of the Algerian militia in the hostage crisis is Al-Qaeda trained in Soviet-Afghan War and veteran of GSPC. He was kicked out of AQIM last year. Saudi Arabia is leading nation of Salafists and Wahabists expansion, its funding and arming the movements (jihadists). Not much has changed since the Jihad in Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden’s revenge with the 9/11 attack on America. Of course Egyptian Zayman Al-Zawahri joined Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda in 1995. The unity between the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist or Wahabist is not universal, see the Emirates where MB is outlawed. The binding issue between all militant groups is Jerusalem (Al Quds), the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestine. The hatred for Israel and America is intense, this motivates aggression and criminal acts. See my previous comment about blow-back. Profile of Algerian militia leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

   The People of Timbuktu
   The secular Islam of Tuareg, Fulani and Songhai are not part of extremist Islamic movement in Mali. Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th centuries. Timbuktu sacred monuments have been destroyed by Salafists of Ansar El-Dine.  Salafists are imposing Shari’a law in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria.

   Map of Recent Islamist Coalition Aggressions in Mali
   Islamists were driving back forces from the ostensibly secular, Tuareg-led Movement for the National Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA). The MNLA launched the northern rebellion in January, but lost control of the uprising during the spring.

   • BBC News – Tuaregs ‘join Gaddafi’s mercenaries’ (2011)

   Fallout in the Sahara: Did the War in Libya Play into the Hands of al-Qaeda?

   (TIME) Sept. 28, 2011 – But they had a fickle friend in Muammar Gaddafi, who at times supported their rebellions, invested in their areas, and opened up Libya’s doors to them. Tens of thousands of Tuareg moved to Libya for work. Many joined his military — 12,000, according to a senior Tuareg politician in Niger — and thousands more picked up arms for him once the conflict began. Many of these were former rebels. Now, they are part of the flood home. And authorities doubt they are coming home empty-handed. “You can’t travel this part of the desert without guns,” says Baika Boudjamaha, head of the Nigerien polices anti-drug operations. “They could hide those weapons wherever they want in the desert or mountains and we’d never find them.”

   Al-Qaeda’s New Homeland – Mali

   • Tuareg Declare Independent State in Mali (Gaddafi Mercenaries)
2. 

   Oui on January 19, 2013 at 8:13 am

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   American kidnappings in Algeria a ‘terrorist attack,’ says Panetta

   (The Hill) – The Pentagon has agreed to provide intelligence and military logistical support to Paris to aid the French attempt to sweep members of al Qaeda’s West African cell, known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, from northern Mali.

   French warplanes have been pounding al Qaeda positions inside northern Mali since Sunday, with the help of intelligence and military logistics support provided by the Pentagon. Panetta told reporters in Spain that it was Washington’s “responsibility” to back the French offensive in Africa.

   On Wednesday, the Pentagon chief declined to comment specifically on whether the Algeria attack was in direct response to France’s aerial campaign in Mali, but did note the attack bore all the hallmarks of a terrorist operation.  

   “I do know that terrorists are terrorists and terrorists take these kinds of actions. We’ve witnessed their behavior in a number of occasions
    where they have total disregard for innocent men and women. This appears to be that kind of situation.”

   Weeks before the attack, Washington and Algiers had reportedly been working a deal to allow American intelligence assets to operate in Algerian airspace, in an attempt to monitor the situation in northern Mali. Under the terms of the proposal, Washington would provide the satellites to military and intelligence officials in Algeria to track AQIM fighters in West Africa, according to recent reports.

   Algeria has so far been reluctant to allow American intelligence and counterterrorism officials operate in and around its territory. Algiers has repeatedly denied U.S. requests to allow American drones based in Morocco and the West African nation of Burkina Faso to fly through Algerian airspace and into Mali to track AQIM forces there.

   Statement by Hillary Clinton on Algerian hostage crisis

3. 

   Oui on January 19, 2013 at 10:53 am

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   Algeria crisis: ‘Captors and hostages die in assault’

   AIN AMENAS, Algerisa (BBC News) – Algerian troops have ended a siege at a gas facility in the Sahara desert killing 11 Islamist militants after they killed seven hostages, Algerian state news agency APS has said. The hostages were summarily killed as the troops tried to free them, it said.

   About 30 foreigners remain unaccounted for, including fewer than 10 from the UK.The militants themselves said before the raid that they had been holding seven hostages.

   Shortly before reports of the final assault emerged, the leader of the hostage-takers, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, said the government had to choose between negotiating with the kidnappers and leaving the hostages to die. He said the area had been booby-trapped and swore to blow up the complex if the Algerian army used force.

   Algerian national oil and gas company Sonatrach said the army was now clearing mines planted by the militants.

   Last night 15 burned bodies found at the desert gas plant

   (Stuff NZ) – Algerian authorities gave no clear sign of how many people are still alive or captive at the Ain Amenas plant in southeast Algeria as of Saturday morning (local time). About midnight it was reported that special forces had found 15 burned bodies at the desert gas plant, a source familiar with the unfolding hostage crisis there said.

   An investigation was in progress to try and identify the bodies. There was no immediate indication of the circumstances in which those found had died.

4. 

   Oui on January 19, 2013 at 1:58 pm

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   INSIGHT-Algerians suspect inside help in hostage raid

    (Reuters) – The In Amenas gas plant felt impregnable to many who worked there – walled in, hundreds of miles from anywhere and with the Algerian army constantly patrolling its desert approaches. That was a mirage. Libya, an ex-police state turned arms bazaar and now open for jihad, lies just 50 empty miles away. And in any case, the enemy was probably already inside the gates.

   At least some of up to 70 Islamist guerrillas who stormed in before dawn on Wednesday launched their operation hours earlier, barrelling over smugglers tracks across the Libyan border just after midnight, an Algerian security official told Reuters, citing evidence from mobile phones traced to the militants.

   First word of trouble came crackling over a walkie-talkie to the communications room at In Amenas, where a 27-year-old radio operator called Azedine logged a contact with a bus driver who, at 5:45 a.m. (0445 GMT), left to take some foreigners to the airstrip at the town of In Amenas, some 50 km (30 miles) away.

   “Moments after the bus left, I heard shooting, a lot of shooting, and then nothing,” Azedine told Reuters on Friday. Freed hostages spoke of an alarm being raised, of frightened people staying in their offices or accommodation. Azedine saw a gunman put on the ID badge of a French supervisor who had been shot dead.

   Rapidly the area was surrounded by heavily armed Algerian troops, with tanks, armoured vehicles and helicopter gunships from a nearby military base. The government in Algiers vowed never to negotiate.

   SMUGGLERS’ TRAILS

   Militant leaders like Taher Ben Cheneb, said by officials to have led the operation and to have been killed on Thursday, have stoked resentment among southerners at the way foreigners and northerners dominate the better paid jobs in the oil fields.

   Ben Cheneb, described as a high school maths teacher in his 50s, led the Movement of the Islamic Youth in the South. Security expert Rahmani said he joined forces for this operation with followers of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran of Afghan wars and a leading figure in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who recently formed a new group named Mulathameen. The two men had cooperated before, Rahmani said, notably in damaging an airliner in 2007 at Djanet, further to the south.

   While Ben Cheneb’s group appeared to have moved on In Amenas from a base inside Algeria, Rahmani said, Belmokhtar’s men, led by Abu El Bara, appeared to have come in from Libya.

   Noting the one-eyed Belmokhtar’s reputation as a cigarette smuggler as well as a holy warrior – locals call him the “Mister Marlboro” – he added: “They use the same backroads as the smugglers. You need a perfect knowledge of the Sahara to do it. “They can use the same wells as the smugglers, the same fuel dumps hidden in the desert.”

   Read more …

   Important presentation before CSIS by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Oct. 12, 2012

   IMHO listening to this abstract policy speech, her distance to the reality on the ground is infathomable. She just doesn’t get it what is happening, SHAME! The hatred in North African states for the US is extreme and widespread across its citizens. HC speaks of small group of extremists, she is in denial on what really takes place.

   • Symbolism of Guatanamo Bay by orange jumpsuit for hostage before applying Shari’a law and executions
5. 

   Oui on January 19, 2013 at 4:26 pm

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   A convoy of SUVs with militants and hostages, some strapped with explosives, attempted to move from housing complex to the gas facility a few miles away. The militant leader Taher Ben Cheneb was among them. The Algerian special forces decided to avoid this at all cost and a helicopter gunship intercepted the convoy destroying 3 vehicles. A fourth was blown-up by the terrorists and in the fifth the hostages managed to escape.

   From an Algerian witness interviewed today, it became clear the militants already separated the Algerian (muslim) workers from the foreign nationals. He witnessed the execution of five colleagues in the housing complex.

   This leads to my conclusion the Algerian leadership handled correctly and avoided an impossible hostage situation if this convoy would have reached the gas facility. Any military action would have been more hazardous and complicated.

   I am old enough to remember multiple hostage takings by terror groups in the 70s and 80s in the Middle-East and in Europe. In The Netherlands the French Embassy was attacked by Japanese terrorists with hostages in exchange for political goals. Also the Indonesian minority living in exile in the Netherlands from the Moluccan undertook military terror acts with hostage takings of train passengers in combination with an attack on a primary school with young children in 1977. Dutch news video of commando raid on train

   In these terror acts, the red line is execution of hostages. As soon as this happens, any negotiations are doomed for failure if you want to keep the perpetrators accountable to face justice.

   Algeria response ‘most suitable’ in hostage crisis – President Hollande of France

   “When you have people taken hostage in such large numbers by terrorists with such cold determination and ready to kill those hostages – as they did – Algeria has an approach which to me, as I see it, is the most appropriate because there could be no negotiation,” he told journalists.

   Cross-posted from my new diary – 700 Workers Rescued as Algerian Hostage Crisis Is Near End

6. 

   Oui on January 20, 2013 at 5:03 am

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   In wake of terrorist attacks, Obama says US is ready to assist Algerian officials

   WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama said Saturday the U.S. stands ready to provide whatever assistance Algerian officials need in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack at a natural gas complex in the Sahara.

   The State Department issued a travel warning Saturday night for Americans in or travelling to Algeria, citing credible threats of the kidnapping of Western nationals. The department also authorized the departure from Algeria of staff members’ families if they choose to leave.

   In a statement from the White House, Obama said the blame lay with the militants and that the United States condemns their actions.

   “This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in North Africa. In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future.”

   Earlier Saturday, during a news conference in London with Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, British Defence Minister Philip Hammond called the loss of life appalling and unacceptable. “It is the terrorists that bear the sole responsibility,” Hammond told reporters.

   Panetta and Hammond confirm Algerian Hostage Crisis has Ended

   (Denver Post) – British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said he had been informed by the Algerians that the hostage situation had been “brought to an end” by the Algerian army assault on the militants.

   U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta admitted that details were still not clear but stressed that there must be no safe haven for militants.

   A source close to the crisis said sixteen foreign hostages were freed on Saturday. They included two Americans, two Germans and one Portuguese.

   The Islamists’ attack on the gas plant has tested Algeria’s relations with the outside world, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara and pushed Islamic radicalism in northern Africa to centre stage.

    

   Freed British hostages praise Algerian Army

   • Fallout in the Sahara: Did the War in Libya Play into the Hands of al-Qaeda?
7. 

   Oui on January 20, 2013 at 6:51 am

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   Just watched an extended interview on Sky News with British Foreign Minister Haig who had harsh criticism of Algerian decision for military intervention. Now he joins Hollande of France [video] who had been more sympathetic towards the Algerian regime. It is becoming clear the militants had early on started executing hostages and the 5 workers I wrote about were most likely Japanese.

   In a breakimg news update another 25 bodies have been found inside the boobie-trapped gas facility. It’s not clear yet how many are hostages or militants. The fear of more hostage deaths as a number of foreign nationals are still unaccounted for, may become a reality.

   LATEST:The 32 dead militants in hostage crisis were of six different nationalities including three Algerian and one Canadian