Algeria’s government has said the death toll in a siege at a desert gas plant was likely to rise from the current confirmed figure of 23 hostages as well as 32 Islamist militants.
Three British nationals were confirmed killed and three more were missing, presumed dead, David Cameron said in a statement from Chequers on Sunday morning, a figure that includes the Briton known to have died at the beginning of the four-day siege.
Another British resident is presumed to have been killed, while 22 other Britons involved in the crisis at the In Amenas gas facility survived and have returned to the UK.
Cameron said the “appalling terrorist incident” was now over. It began on Wednesday when an estimated 30 fighters identifying themselves as the Signers in Blood, a splinter group of al-Qaida in the Islamic Mahgreb, seized the gas plant near the Libyan border.
“Tragically, we now know that three British nationals have been killed, and a further three are believed to be dead. And a further British resident is also believed to be dead,” he said. “I know the whole country will want to join me in sending our sympathies and condolences to the families who have undergone an absolutely dreadful ordeal, and now face life without these very precious loved ones.”
Cameron said the attack illustrated that terrorism was a growing problem in north Africa. “This is a global threat and it will require a global response. It will require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months,” he said. Algeria’s interior ministry gave a tally of 23 hostage fatalities in the siege, with 107 foreign hostages freed along with 685 Algerian nationals. However, Mohamed Said, the government’s communications minister, said this might not be the final number. “I am afraid unfortunately to say that the death toll will go up,” he was quoted as saying by Algeria’s official news agency, APS.
Among those reported killed was Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, the Nigerien terrorist believed to have led the al-Qaida splinter group. The attackers came from six countries, according to Said.
Details of the hostages killed remain limited, though reports said at least eight Algerian hostages had died along with two Japanese nationals and one from France. One American was confirmed dead. Statoil, the Norwegian company that runs the plant alongside Britain’s BP and Algeria’s state oil company, Sonatrach, said five Norwegian staff were missing.
A number of militants and hostages died on Thursday when Algerian special forces launched an initial assault, a plan not communicated in advance to Britain or the other foreign governments involved. A renewed attack on Saturday reportedly began following threats from the 11 surviving militants to blow up the plant and kill the hostages.
There has been concern in London and elsewhere about the lack of notification from the Algerian government, but Cameron stressed the difficulty of the situation. He said: “No one should underestimate the difficulties of responding to an attack on this scale with 30 terrorists absolutely determined to take lives, and we should recognise all the Algerians have done to work with us and to help and co-ordinate with us, and I’d like to thank them for that.”
France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, echoed the sentiment, telling Europe 1 radio: “It’s easy to say that this or that should have been done. The Algerian authorities took a decision and the toll is very high but I am a bit bothered when the impression is given that the Algerians are open to question. They had to deal with terrorists.”
Barack Obama said the US would ask Algeria for a full explanation of what happened, but said: “The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out.”
The hostage-takers had demanded an end to the French military operation against Islamists in northern Mali, as well as the release of two men jailed in the US. However, the scale and ambition of the attack indicates it was almost certainly planned before the start of the Mali operation this month.
Algeria’s government has an extremely tough position towards Islamists following a hugely bloody insurgency in the 1990s, but there has been concern at the way a relatively small number of fighters seized a facility that produces around 10% of the country’s economically vital natural gas. Algerian officials say the attackers may have had inside help from some staff at the site.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that it was “quite likely” some of the Britons were subjected to execution-style killing by the hostage-takers. Hague said London had not been consulted about the Algerian decision to launch the attack that terminated the crisis. “Of course, we would have liked to have been consulted,” he said.
