◼ Why Algeria Didn’t Warn the U.S. About Its Hostage Raid - Eli Lake/The Daily Beasy
A messy hostage raid put Americans lives at risk—and Obama didn’t even get a heads up. Eli Lake on the years of mistrust (and spurned cash) between the two nations.
◼ Algeria's special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert on Saturday in a "final assault" aimed at ending a four-day-old hostage crisis, the state news agency reported. It said 11 militants and seven hostages were killed. - AP ◼ Via Drudge
The siege at the Ain Amenas plant, jointly run by BP, Norway's Statoil and Algeria's state-owned oil company, transfixed the world after radical Islamists stormed the complex, which contained hundreds of plant workers from all over the world.
Algeria's response to the crisis was typical of the country's history in confronting terrorists - military action over negotiation - and caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens.
The latest deaths bring the official Algerian tally of dead to 19 hostages and 29 militants, although reports on the number of dead, injured and freed have been contradictory throughout the crisis....
The accounts of hostages who escaped the complex highlight the cavalier attitude toward their lives taken by both kidnappers and the military.
Ruben Andrada, 49, a Filipino civil engineer who works as one of the project management staff for the Japanese company JGC Corp., described how Algerian helicopter gunships had earlier opened fire on vehicles carrying hostages and the gunmen who used them as shields.
On Thursday, about 35 hostages guarded by 15 militants were loaded into seven SUVs in a convoy to move them from the housing complex to the refinery, Andrada said. The militants placed "an explosive cord" around their necks and were told it would detonate if they tried to run away, he said.
◼ Earlier: Escaped hostages recount horrors in Algeria - Washington Post
◼ Yesterday: Algeria launches second rescue effort: State media report more than 650 hostages are freed as second round of search for 30 foreigners still missing begins. - Al Jazeera
◼ Possibly our next war and we're getting our news from Algore Jazeera. Discussion at Lucianne
◼ Algerian hostage crisis throws spotlight on spillover of Libyan war - Washington Post
◼ The Libyan boomerang in Mali - Ed Morrissey/HotAir
◼ Executed: Five Britons feared dead after Algeria hostage crisis ends in bloodbath as first chilling pictures emerge of Al Qaeda gunmen storming gas plant - Daily Mail
◼ Siege reaches climax after seven executed in final act of violence
◼ Happened just as special forces soldiers storm desert gas facility
◼ All 11 remaining militants shot dead in a fierce gun battle
◼ In total, 32 kidnappers and 23 captives had died in the siege
◼ Hostages Executed by Terrorists Before Final Assault by Algerian Military - Rick Moran/PJ Tatler
◼ Algeria hostage crisis: latest as French minister describes 'act of war' - Jennifer O'Mahony/The Telegraph
