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Two dead, many injured and taken hostage in Algeria

Two foreign nationals were killed and six people were injured and many others hostage after attacked a bus Wednesday and complex inhabited by workers on oil facilities in the region Ain Amenas in Algeria, near the border with Libya.

Two hostages, one British and one Algerian, were killed and six others wounded in today's attack by twenty men against a bus unit extraction of natural gas in southern Algeria, as announced by the Algerian Interior Minister Ntachou Oulnt Kamplia.

"There are two dead, one Algerian and one Briton," the minister said on state television and said that one British, one Norwegian and one Scot and two detectives and an agent of the Algerian security were injured in the attack, which was followed by the capture hostages.



The attackers were driven initially by the guards who accompanied the bus, but after previously injured six people: two foreign civilians, two policemen and two security guards the statement said the ministry was broadcast by the Algerian agency APS. The nationalities of the wounded have
elucidated. After the attack on the bus carrying the wounded in Ain Amenas.

The gunmen then went to the homes of workers besieged a number of them came in and managed to catch at least 40 people hostage, including many foreigners.

Meanwhile, an armed Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the seizure of hostages and demanded mainly "to stop the attack," Mali said in a statement published on its website Mauritania Alakhbar, which regularly publishes announcements jihadists. "We announce that we have achieved a large attack in response to the (...) crusade carried out by French forces in Mali," the organization's statement "sign in blood", published in Alkhbar.

This is the name given by the Algerian Mokhtar Belmochtar, who was recently removed from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi), the unit of fighters. "We confirm that the hostages are more than 40 Crusaders, among which 7 are 2 Brits and Americans, among other nationalities," continues the organization's communication.

"Sit Algeria and countries hostage responsible for any delay in performance of our terms, of which the first is to stop this attack on our own in Mali," the organization states. "Algeria has been chosen as the site of this company to learn (Algerian President Abdelaziz) Bouteflika that will never accept to humiliate the price of the Algerian people (...) opening the Algerian airspace French aircraft", concludes organization communication.


As reported earlier, the Algerian agency APS, Algerian nationals held hostage by armed Islamists in the extraction of natural gas in eastern Algeria were released. Citing local sources, the agency reported that the Algerians were released in small groups. The armed Islamists still hold 41 foreigners, mostly Norwegians, Irish, American, British and Japanese. One of the kidnappers told the news agency ANI Mauritania, warned that any attempt to release the hostages would have "tragic end". He claimed that members of his organization, which is linked to Al Qaeda have placed mines around the oil facilities are surrounded by the army.

Again, according to ANI, the Islamists said "safety of the hostages" should stop military operations in northern Mali France.

Altogether 150 employees in French Algerians CIS Catering company still mines in the BP gas in eastern Algeria, where they were held hostage after the attack about "sixties" people from neighboring countries, said Wednesday the president general manager Rezis Arno.

"I have 150 employees Algerians who have been released within the premises unlike foreign hostages, who are crammed into a corner and could not move. Yet they (Algerian officials) are not allowed to leave the premises" , explained Arno, confirming the information published on the website of the newspaper Journal Du Dimanche.

Meanwhile, the interior minister of Algeria Ntachou Oulnt Kamplia said today that authorities would not negotiate with "terrorists" who keep following the deadly attack, many hostages. The Algerian authorities "will not respond to claims of terrorists and deny any negotiation," he said on state television, referring to the attack and then the taking of hostages, who are foreigners and Algerians.

A plant employee, who asked not to be named, said the kidnappers seek the release of 100 Islamic militants held in Algeria to release the hostages. "The kidnappers ask for the release of 100 terrorists held in Algeria to release their hostages," he said by telephone. "The attackers demanded the Islamists were brought to the region of northern Mali," he said, who had witnessed her captivity and in the region.

The kidnappers holding Algerians and foreigners hostage in southeastern Algeria allegedly asked to leave the country with their hostages, which refused Algiers, said the minister of interior Ntachou Oulnt Kamplia. "It seems that they want to leave this area to leave the country with their hostages, which would not be accepted by the Algerian authorities," he said on public television. The minister noted that the kidnappers are "surrounded" by the army and security services to mines gas in Ain Amenas.

The Kamplia also noted that the perpetrators of the attack and hostage-taking today in these facilities in southeastern Algeria, there came neither Libya nor from Mali. "The terrorist group that attacked the plant was introduced (in Algeria) or from Mali or from Libya," he said in statements made in public television and stated that this is a group of "about twenty men from the region. "

One of the attackers in which was earlier Wednesday telephone told AFP that the kidnappers are members of Al Qaeda, who came from Mali.

The ministry did not identify the organization to which he belonged perpetrators. But according to the announcement and is armored vehicles arrived with three "residential complex at Sonatrach (SS state mining company and exploitation of oil and natural gas) in Tigkantourin, near Ain Amenas, located 100 kilometers from the border" Libya and Algeria.

Under deployed soldiers and men of the security services and "take any measures" to protect employees. Because the attack shutdown of oil installations.