Algerian hostage crisis aftermath – Monday 21 January (2024)

We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage of the ongoing hostage crisis in Algeria. Here's a summary of where things stand:

An unknown number of hostages and captors remain at the gas facility outside In Amenas. The number of those killed and wounded since Wednesday also is unknown. The official Algerian news service reported Friday that 12 hostages had been killed in all, but such tolls have fluctuated a lot since the incident was first reported.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US was "deeply concerned about those who remain in danger." A state department spokeswoman said the United States would not negotiate with terrorists. The Associated Press reported that Americans are among the hostages who remain at the site.

The AP reported that one American was among the dead. The French foreign minister said a French national had also been killed. The British prime minister's office has declined to discuss the number of Britons involved.

Algerian forces have freed about 100 of the 132 foreigners who were taken hostage in a gas facility in the Algerian desert, a security source told Reuters.

Western governments said they were in close touch with Algiers. An American transport plane reportedly ferried some American citizens away from the remote site. The nature of any future plans for a military operation at the site – possibly collaborative – is unclear. US defense secretary Leon Panetta said the militants "will have no place to hide."

The Associated Press names the American who died at In Amenas. He was a worker at the natural gas complex:

US officials identified the dead American as Frederick Buttaccio, a Texas resident, but said it was unclear how he died. They said U.S. officials recovered Buttaccio's remains on Friday and notified his family. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. ...

BP evacuated one American, along with other foreign workers, to Mallorca, Spain, and then to London. And an American official said a U.S. military C-130 flew a group of people, including some lightly wounded or injured, from Algiers to a U.S. facility in Europe on Friday. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and requested anonymity.

Quoting unnamed sources, the AP reports one American died in the In Amenas standoff. No further details are given.

A Frenchman was among those killed when the Algerian military attacked hostage-takers at the gas facility, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said Friday.

"The Algerian authorities have just informed us that one of our compatriots, Mr. Yann Desjeux, unfortunately lost his life during the operation to free hostages," Fabius said in a statement. "The lives of three others of our compatriots who were on the site during the terrorist attack have been saved."

There were many deaths in clashes at the In Amenas gas facility, an Algerian who was taken hostage tells the Guardian:

One Algerian hostage, originally from the city of Ouargla, who escaped during the army assault, said: "There were so many deaths. I was shocked. I can't say the exact number. Foreign hostages died, Algerian hostages died and there were deaths among the terrorists." He said one of the militants' leaders was among those killed.

... The remaining hostage-takers were holed up in the key working area of the gas facility. "It's very difficult for the army to stage an assault because everything could explode. It's dangerous," locals warned.

Read the full piece here.

Clinton said the US will step up its counterterrorism operations in the Maghreb, where it already conducts clandestine surveillance flights among other measures.

"It is absolutely essential that we broaden and deepen our counter-terror cooperation going forward with Algeria and all counter-terror efforts in the region," Clinton said. "I made clear that we stand ready to further enhance counter-terror support that we have already supplied. We have been discussing it last year, when I traveled to Algeria in October specifically to discuss counter-terror issues."

If the statement has a defensive ring to it, consider the storm of controversy that hit the state department after the death of ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya. American fatalities in Algeria at the hands of Islamic militants could redouble criticism of the Obama administration's counter-terrorism policy in north Africa and the Middle East.

Hostages remain in danger at the Algerian gas facility, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said at the top of an appearance in Washington alongside the Japanese foreign minister.

"The United States extends our condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones in this brutal assault, and we remain deeply concerned about those who remain in danger," Clinton said.

Clinton did not say whether any Americans had died in the incident or remain among the hostages. Nor did she give any figures of those dead or wounded.

Calling it "very difficult situation," Clinton said she was in close touch with Algerian officials.

"I want to underscore again that the utmost care must be taken to preserve innocent life," she said.

Algerian engineers have taken the In Amenas gas facility offline in an attempt to ensure the safety of people apparently still inside, according to the energy minister, who is quoted by the news site Algerie360.

"What's extraordinary is that the employees of [state utility] Sonatrach at the site decided to shut down the factory and to put the equipment in a state of decompression so that it doesn't present an immediate danger for the people, first, and for the facility second," minister Youcef Yousfi said.

The gas facility is estimated to account for 18% of Algeria's total gas exports.

The British prime minister's office has once again declined to discuss the number of Britons involved in the ongoing hostage crisis in Algeria.

"The Government is not in a position to comment on the number of UK nationals involved," a No 10 spokesman said.

Prime Minister David Cameron led an afternoon meeting of the Cobra emergency group, after which he spoke once again with his Algerian counterpart, the British Press Association reported.

The prompt and violent response of the Algerian military to the hostage crisis reflects a ruthless counter-terror strategy developed during the country's war on Islamist insurgents in the 1990s, Geoff Porter writes in Foreign Policy:

During that conflict, a debate emerged within the Algerian government about how to deal with the violent Islamists. One side favored a negotiated solution. The other, known as theeradicateurs, said killing the Islamists was the only approach. The eradicateurswon -- and they still remain in the drivers seat in today's Algeria.

Although there have since been two political amnesties for participants in the Islamist insurgency, the eradicateurs still hold key counterterrorism posts in the Algerian military, some having been brought out of retirement as recently as last year, and eliminating terrorists is still the only Algerian government's only actionable policy. There was no question that it would not be deployed at In Amenas.

The heart of all Algerian policies is the preservation of the Algerian state -- maintaining the sanctity of its sovereignty, defending the viability of its economy, and ensuring the safety of its citizens, all with a vision not just to the day-to-day but to the longer run. By attacking the In Amenas facility, the militants struck at these core interests, provoking an overwhelming response from the Algerian government.

Read the full piece here.

The United States will not seek a deal with hostage-takers at the In Amenas facility, a state department spokeswoman said in a daily briefing.

"The United States does not negotiate with terrorists," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

Mauritania's ANI news service earlier reported that militants at the gas facility had offered an exchange of American hostages for inmates held in US prisons.

Meanwhile the Associated Press reports that the State Department has confirmed that American hostages are still being held at the facility.

The AFP has published video of French troops setting up positions in the Niger River town of Markala, Mali.

The report refers to the expulsion of rebels from Diabaly and from Konna, a key city lying on the route from northern territories to the capital.

Journalist Fabien Offner in Bamako is tweeting pictures of Nigerian soldiers deplaning to join the fight against Islamist rebels.

For French speakers, this video produced by Le Monde mapping the political currents feeding the Mali conflict is recommended.

My colleagues report that a small group of jihadists are still holding part of the In Amenas natural gas plant:

Radio France's correspondent in Algeria reported that between seven and 10 attackers armed with explosives were still in the In Amenas plant's machine room. Algerian forces have freed about 100 of the 132 foreigners who were taken hostage in a gas facility in the Algerian desert, a security source told Reuters.

The fate of the others - whether they remained captive or had been killed - remained unclear, he said, as the situation at the plant was "changing rapidly".

Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslim protesters trying to storm a Coptic Christian church in southern Egypt Friday, the Associated Press reports. The crowd gathered after word spread that a Christian man sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl. Here's AP:

Witnesses in Marashda village in the province of Qena said several shops and cars owned by Coptic Christians were torched overnight after Muslim villagers accused a merchant in his sixties of molesting the young girl.
Violence flared again after Friday prayers, with witnesses saying protesters surrounded the village's central Abu Fam church, hurling stones and trying to storm it. Some climbed the church walls and destroyed a cross atop it. Police fired tear gas to scatter the crowd.
Qena security director Gen. Salah Mazid was quoted in state media as saying that police are investigating the accusations against the merchant, who turned himself in at a nearby police station.

A veteran French journalist was killed Thursday while covering fighting in Aleppo, Reporters Without Borders says:

Reporters Without Borders condemns Belgian-born French journalistYves Debay’s death yesterday in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said he was fatally shot while covering fierce fighting between government forces and the rebel Free Syrian Army in Aleppo.

A former soldier who was fascinated by fighting and became a war reporter, Debay created the magazineRaidsin 1986 andAssaut, another magazine specializing in military matters, in 2005.

(h/t: @@soniarolley)

McClatchy correspondent Alan Boswell reports that rebels have retreated "without fight" from the town of Diabaly, north of Bamako, which they captured at the start of the week. Diabaly falls within Niono prefecture.

UPDATE: Citing "local officials," the BBC reports that rebels withdrew from Diabaly after a "French bombardment."

UPDATE 2: Boswell says Malian officials' story on Diabaly is changing "every 15 minutes, like clockwork."

UPDATE 3: Boswell now reports "the rebels left Diabaly under heavy French bombing."

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the United States is working with Britain and other allies to free hostages in Algeria. He did not say whether the United States was considering armed intervention.

The militants will have 'no place to hide,' Panetta said. The Associated Press reports:

Speaking Friday at Kings College in London, Panetta said the U.S. is "working around the clock to ensure the safe return of our citizens."

Panetta said the terrorists should be on notice they will find no sanctuary in Algeria or North Africa and said anyone who looks to attack the U.S. will have "no place to hide."

Panetta met later Friday with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Discussion of Islamic militant operations in Mali and Algeria dominated the unscheduled meeting, senior U.S. defense officials said, though the two also discussed budget issues, Syria, Iran and how they can work with other countries to address counter-terrorism.

In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama was being briefed Friday by his national security team. His top aides were in touch with Algerian officials as well as BP's security office in London. BP jointly operates the natural gas plant.

Administration officials, seeking to explain the lack of information from the U.S., said the situation on the ground was fluid, and officials did not want to put the hostages at further risk by providing real-time updates.

Algerian state TV has broadcast the first images of freed hostages. The broadcast includes interviews with Algerians, in Arabic, and with Turkish and Filipino employees at the facility, in English (beginning at 2:35, and also 6:45). At least one of those interviewed appears to have been severely wounded. The footage includes the interviews with two Britons we described earlier.

The hostages describe taking cover as the military mounted an attack. Some were freed by the military; others appear to have run to freedom. The broadcast depicts the actions of the Algerian army as heroic, with repeated promptings by the interviewer for the former hostages to praise the military's actions.

(via Dernieres Nouvelles d'Algerie)

Here's some quotes from another two British workers said to have escaped the siege and interviewed on Algerian state TV. One said:

I feel safe at the moment but I won't feel 100% happy until I'm back in the UK. My heart goes out to the guys that are still there and hopefully everyone comes home safe because, at the end of the day, it's only work.

The other said he was "very relieved" to be out. "As much as I'm glad to be out my thoughts are with colleagues that are still there at the moment."

Leila Berrato, Radio France's correspondent in Algeria, has just tweeted that between seven and 10 attackers armed with explosives are still in the In Amenas facility's machine room

Brahim, an Algerian technician employed by BP on the site, has been talking to France 24 TV.

He said the Algerian workers were held separately from the foreigners from the start of the incident, in a different part of the compound only loosely controlled by the Islamists.

During Wednesday night, Brahim said, he and his colleagues helped a Philippine and two Turkish members of staff escape through a wire fence into the Algerian side of the compound:

We hid them and reassured them. The first skirmishes between the Algerian army and the terrorists came at about 1pm on the Thursday. Despite our fear, from the beginning of the shooting we decided to try our luck. We cut the wire fence with clippers, and ran for it, all together, 50 or so of us with the three foreigners. We were welcomed by the special forces who were only a few dozen metres from the base. I didn't look back. The only thing I saw was a plane overflying the site. The army frisked us and questioned us, then we were handed over to the gendarmes who took us to In Amenas airport.

The White House has issued a statement saying that Barack Obama is getting regular updates on the situation, and is in constant communication with David Cameron and others, CNN reports.

The US is in the process of evacuating the site of Americans, the channel says.

Algeria's state news service has revised its figures of the numbers of foreign hostages freed. They are now saying 100 out of 132 have been freed – up from around 60 earlier.

In the US, the White House spokesman has said the president's team are in constant contact with the Algerian government. Their first priority is the hostages' safety, he said. They are in close touch with the UK, BP's security office in London, and other international partners.

Algerian TV has broadcast interviews with two unnamed British men said to have been in the gas facility during the siege. They seem surprisingly unruffled. One is quoted by the Press Association as saying:

I think they did a fantastic job. I was very impressed with the Algerian army. It was a very exciting episode. I feel sorry for anybody who has been hurt but, other than that, I enjoyed it.

The second said:

The gendarmes did a fantastic job. They kept us all nice and safe and fought off the bad guys. I never really felt in any danger, to be honest.

Both Reuters and AFP cite local sources saying some 60 foreign hostages are still unaccounted for. Reuters says:

It was unclear how many of those 60 foreigners were still being held directly under guard by the gunmen and how many might be in hiding in the sprawling compound. It was also not known whether some might have been killed and the bodies not found.

The French news weekly L'Express reports from Algiers that Algerian foreign minister Mourad Medelci has today received the ambassadors of the US, France, Britain, Japan, Austria, Norway, Canada and the EU to discuss the hostage-taking at In Amenas and its aftermath. Nothing has so far emerged of what was discussed.

French 24-hour news radio France Info has interviewed a number of escaped Algerian hostages who confirmed the Islamist militants were only interested in foreign workers at the In Amenas site.

They came into the bedrooms, they broke down the doors. They were shouting: We're only looking for the expatriates, the Algerians can leave! They rounded up the expats, they encircled them, they tied them up. They were all herded into a corner of the restaurant.

Another escaped hostage told the radio station (via Le Figaro):

When they saw the Algerian army taking up position, they separated the hostages: the expats on one side, the Algerians were taken to the foyer. Now we have no news of our expatriate colleagues; [the Islamists] used them as a shield.

Japan's PM Shinzo Abe has cut short his first foreign visit since taking office to focus on the Algerian hostage crisis. Abe was in Indonesia as part of a tour of south-east Asia.

Youcef Yousfi, the Algerian energy minister, has visited six wounded hostages at the ElAzhard clinic in Algiers, reports the Algerian state news agency APS via TSA.

There are a total of nine wounded hostages in the clinic, including two Britons, four from the Philippines, one from Japan and two Algerians. Nothing is known about their condition at the moment.

The minister reportedly said engineers from the Sonatrach energy company had now shut down the In Amenas plant in order to avoid any danger to people still on the site.

Here's a clip of David Cameron's statement to the Commons on the Algerian hostage crisis earlier.

The Algerian newspaper El Watan cites unnamed security sources as saying that Algerian special forces succeeded in capturing one of the hostage-takers during the assault.

The paper said the man, whose name and nationality were not disclosed, said the group of Islamist attackers was 32 strong and belonged to the Signatories by Blood battalion, part of Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Mulathameen brigade.

APS, the Algerian state news agency, says some of the militants remain in the gas facility and are still holding a number of hostages:

[The army] is still trying to achieve a "peaceful outcome" before neutralising the terrorist group that is holed up in the [facility] and freeing a group of hostages that is still being held.

The quote "peaceful outcome" comes from a security source.

As we reported earlier, the military operation rescued a total of 650 hostages, 573 of whom were Algerians, APS said. That would mean 77 foreigners had been rescued.

A freelance Algerian Journalist, Yahia Bounouar, has managed to get to the last road block before the In Amenas complex, reports Le Figaro.

After 20 hours on the road, with the final stages of his 1,700km journey interrupted by police roadblocks, Bounouar was unable to persuade the gendarmes to let him through the final barrier – at the crossroads from which the single road leads to the Tiguentourine site.

Bounouar told Le Figaro that this morning, Algerian emergency service teams had erected a large canvas camp near the barrier. On the road, he saw two trucks on their way to the town of In Amenas, each filled with 30-odd cheering men.

Soldiers were escorting the freed hostages, apparently to one of the garrisons in the town. Alongside the trucks, escorted this time by Algerian police, was a minibus whose drawn blinds blocked any sight of its occupants.

A UK Foreign Office chartered plane carrying a special consular team has landed in the desert outpost of Hassi Messaoud, about 300 miles north-west of Amenas, reports Julian Borger.

The team is now waiting for clearance from the Algerian authorities to fly to Amenas. The FCO said it was a contingency team, as BP is taking the lead in the evacuation of British gas workers from Amenas. It would step in if BP needed help getting them all back home. In the team there are also officials (presumably intelligence officials) to debrief rescued and escaped hostages.

A number of wounded hostages have been taken by helicopter to hospitals in Algiers, reports the Algiers correspondent of the French news magazine L'Express, who saw several hostages of different nationalities arrive at the private El Azhar clinic just outside the capital. Algerian police have mounted guard outside the clinic and the Algerian energy minister, Youcef Yousfi, has visited survivors.

My colleague Paddy Allen has produced this interactive map of how the situation unfolded.

More on the number of foreign hostages remaining on the In Amenas site: Le Monde cites Algeria's official APS news service as confirming some 30 militants took 132 foreigners hostage of whom "more than half" have now been freed.

Le Monde quotes Algeria's official APS news agency as saying 650 hostages have been freed from In Amenas site, including 573 Algerians.

Algeria's official APS news agency says about 60 foreign hostages remain unaccounted for, AP reports.

Nick Hopkins, the Guardian's defence and security correspondent, will have a piece online soon about Britain's operational response to the ongoing crisis. Here's a taster:

The UK is flying a team of consular staff and intelligence analysts from MI6 and MI5 to Algiers to help secure the release of the Britons involved in the ongoing hostage crisis.

The entourage is not understood to include members of the special forces, though the UK has continued to offer technical and logistical support, as well as experts in hostage negotiation.

Britain is believed to have advised the Algerians “to play it long”, in terms of dealing with the kidnappers, and to draw on all the expertise of those countries that can offer advice and intelligence.

But events moved quickly out of control.

“We don’t have a full picture yet, so it is too early to learn the lessons. But on the face of it, this is not the way we would have handled it,” said one source.

This from my colleague Justin McCurry, the Guardian's Tokyo correspondent:

Concern is mounting in Japan about the fate of 10 workers thought to be among the hostages at the In Amenas gas field. There are unconfirmed reports that two Japanese nationals were among those who died.

JGC, an engineering firm headquartered in Yokohama, near Tokyo, said on Friday it had confirmed the safety of four more employees, in addition to three it contacted earlier, according to public broadcaster NHK.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, cut short a three-nation visit to Southeast Asia to return to Tokyo to oversee Japan's response to the crisis.

There was irritation, bordering on anger, that the Algerian government had not notified Japan of the rescue attempt. Tokyo was told of the operation by Britain's ambassador to Algeria, local reports said. Abe told reporters he has asked his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal in a phone conversation to refrain from any moves that could threaten the safety of the hostages.

JGC said that of the 61 non-Japanese it employs at the facility, 10 had been accounted for as of Friday. "There are still some Japanese nationals whose whereabouts are unknown," a company spokesman told reporters in Tokyo on Friday night."We will do as much as we can as their employer to confirm the whereabouts of our Japanese and foreign staff."

Ihab Mohamed writes: According to Mauritania's ANI news agency, which seems to be in contact with the Battalion of Blood, the terrorist group behind the hostage crisis, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the group's leader, is offering to release the American hostages in exchange for the release of Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, who are in jail in America on terrorism charges.

Belmokhtar has recorded a video message,which he is going to send to the mass media, in which he offers the same swap and calls on the French and Algerians to negotiate an end to the war in northern Mali.

We cannot independently verify this, although ANI has been broadly right in its reports throughout this crisis.

Syrian state TV says rebels linked to al-Qaida group detonated cars filled with explosives near a mosque in southern Syria, causing many casualties, Associated Press reports.

State-run TV says the suicide attacks occurred as worshippers were leaving a mosque following Friday prayers in the city of Daraa, south of Damascus. It was not immediately clear how many people were killed or wounded in the attacks.

Syrian TV blamed fighters with Jabhat al-Nusra, a group the US has declared a terrorist organisation that has also been blamed for Tuesday's attack on the University of Aleppo, which killed an estimated 87 people.

The slaughter in the Sahara has been a terrible shock for the countries whose unfortunate nationals were involved. But no one should have been surprised that the Algerian government adopted such an aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach to the deadly drama at In Amenas, writes Ian Black.

Algerian security sources have told AFP (via Le Figaro) that the In Amenas gas site's accomodation area has now been secured but that "between six or seven terrorists" have taken refuge in the industrial part of the plant, which is encircled by Algerian security forces.

The same sources told the French news agency that 18 militants out of a total of about 30 had been killed in the Algerian armed forces' operation.

Patrick Wintour, the Guardian's political editor, tells me David Cameron will meet Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, now that the prime minister is unexpectedly in London today.

The PM will chair a second meeting of Cobra this afternoon and his spokesman stressed that the operation remains an entirely Algerian-led operation.

The UK ambassador to Algeria is likely to fly to the In Amenas area.

The Mauritanian news service ANI, which has been in contact with the hostage-takers throughout the crisis, quotes a leader of the al Qaida-linked group that has claimed responsibility for the attack as saying it was planned several weeks in advance.

The spokesman for the Mulathameen brigade, whose name means "The Masked Ones", told the agency the group had been ready "for two months" because "we knew the [Algerian] regime would ally itself with France" in the Mali government's fight against Islamist rebels.

The spokesman warned Algerians to "stay away from sites operated by foreign companies because we will strike where no one is expecting us."

ANI also reported that an Islamist leader was killed in the assault by Algerian forces yesterday. The agency quoted a "well-informed source" as saying Lamine Boucheneb, head of the so-called Sons of the Sahara for Islamic Justice group, was killed along with two other senior militants.

The agency also cites a member of the Signatories by Blood commando forces that overran the complex as saying the hostage-takers came from Algeria, Canada, Mali, Egypt, Niger and Mauritania.

The same source told ANI the group was not trying to leave the site with its hostages when the Algerian army attacked on Thursday, but just to move them to another part of the plant.

Like the British, the French government had no warning before the Algerian assault on the kidnappers, it seems. Asked whether the government knew in advance, a source told Reuters: "No. We learned the same way you did what happened."

An Austrian hostage has been "released", Reuters reports.

Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond today said a number of Scottish residents who had been held captive in Algeria have been confirmed as "safe and well".

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said earlier: "This terrible incident of terrorism has highlighted again the threat in north Africa and the Sahel from international terrorism.Working with our international partners we shall remain our resolve to see that the threat is countered and defeated and al Qaida denied a foothold on Europe’s southern border."

Dr Christina Hellmich, an al Qaida expert at the University of Reading, rejects this. She says:

The attack, tragic as it is, is not evidence that al Qaida is gaining a foothold on Europe’s southern border. Such a claim takes the incident outside of any meaningful context and ignores the presence that al Qaida, more specifically al Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), has had in the region. There have been other cases of hostage takings in recent years. Maybe more importantly, AQIM stands out from other local groups for its focus on a local agenda, namely the overthrow of the Algerian government. Thus to speak of a new and urgent threat to Europe is an exaggeration that seems inappropriate.

Here is a summary of what we know so far:

In a statement to the House of Commons, British prime minister David Cameron said the Algerian mission to rescue the In Amenas hostages was an “ongoing operation”. The Algerian armed forces were still pursuing terrorists and “possibly some of the hostages” at the site. Algeria was looking at “all possible routes” to resolve the matter.

He said a terrorist group led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar and affiliated with Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb had carried out the attack and hostage-taking on Wednesday. The group first attacked two buses en route to the Aminas airfield – killing two people, one of them British – and then attacked the residential compound and gas facility at the installation, taking an unknown number of hostages, some of whom were British. Cameron called it a “large, well-coordinated and heavily-armed assault” and said it may have been pre-planned.

Cameron said the British government was not told in advance about Algeria’s attack on the kidnappers yesterday morning. The Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, told him that the terrorists had tried to flee and Algiers judged there to be an immediate threat to the lives of the hostages. This first operation was now “complete”. Cameron had offered technical and intelligence support, and implied that that this offer was not taken up.

The PM said the number of British citizens at risk was less than 30, and is now “quite significantly” less than that, although he would not give further details. Reuters is citing a local source as saying that 30 hostages, including several westerners, and 11 of their captors were killed in yesterday’s Algerian assault. At least 22 foreign hostages were still unaccounted for, the news agency reported, including 14 Japanese and eight Norwegians. Algeria’s state radio said 18 militants had been killed. These figures cannot be verified at this point.

The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, has said that Washington is working with London and Algiers to assess what is happening and ensure the safe return of US citizens. A US plane reportedly landed this morning near the gas facility to help with any evacuation.

The former head of French intelligence, Alain Juillet, has suggested the truth about the raid may not be known for weeks.

French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault confirms an "operation" is still underway in Algeria and that "several hostages" are dead, without giving further details, tweets Le monde.

The outgoing US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, on a visit to London last week, said Washington was working closely with Britain and Algeria to assess the situation In Amenas.

Speaking at King's College London, he said the US was "working around the clock to ensure the safe return of our citizens", AP reports.

He added the Islamist hostage-takers would find no sanctuary in Algeria or north Africa, while anyone who attempted to attack the US would have "no place to hide".

An Algerian engineer, Khaled, employed by Algerian energy firm Sonatrach, has been recounting what happened when the hostage-takers arrived at the site on Wednesday morning.

The French news magazine L'Express has his account:

I didn't see the attack on the bus. What I saw, at about 5am, was a dozen or pick-up trucks. I don't know exactly how they got into the site. I heard gunfire, sustained shooting. Then the guy who was clearly the head of the armed group spoke to us. He said he was called Belaouar, and he said he would let us go quickly. It was the foreigners who interested them, they only wanted them.

The Islamists left us our phones so we could call our families. But quite quickly it became impossible to contact anyone. Someone told me they had freed the women, but I didn't see that. The women who work on the site are mostly interpreters. Later in the morning there was an assault. I was in the games room at the time. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, some people managed to open the security door, and we all just ran for it.

He said his priority was "the safety of British nationals involved, the repatriation of those killed, and the evacuation of the wounded and freed hostages".

A rapid deployment consular team was en route to Algiers with other specialists and the Algerian PM has agreed to allow UK consular staff to fly south to support those involved.

He was also offering to help BP with evacuation plans.

Cameron then explained what happened on Thursday:

Mr Speaker, during the course of Thursday morning the Algerian forces mounted an operation.

Mr Speaker, we were not informed of this in advance.

I was told by the Algerian prime minister while it was taking place.

He said that the terrorists had tried to flee, that they judged there to be an immediate threat to the lives of the hostages, and had felt obliged to respond.

When I spoke to the Algerian prime minister later last night he told me that this first operation was complete but this is a large and complex site and they are still pursuing terrorists and possibly some of the hostages in other areas of the site.

The Algerian prime minister has just told me this morning they are now looking at all possible routes to resolve this crisis.

Mr Speaker, last night the number of British citizens at risk was less than 30. Thankfully, we now know that number has now been quite significantly reduced. And I'm sure the house will understand why in an ongoing operation I cannot say more on this at this stage.

Cameron then went on to explain the British government's reaction:

As soon as we heard of the attack we initiated the government's crisis-management procedures in both London and Algeria. Our most immediate priority was to establish the identity and whereabouts of British nationals, to contact their families, and to do everything possible to secure their safe return.

I chaired a meeting of the government's emergency committee, Cobra, I spoke to the Algerian prime minister on Wednesday afternoon and then again on three further occasions.

From the outset I have been clear about our implacable opposition to terrorism and said that we will stand with the Algerians in their fight against these terrorist forces.

But I also emphasised the paramount importance of securing the safety of the hostages.

I offered UK technical and intelligence support, including from experts in hostage negotiation and rescue, to help find a successful resolution.

And I urged that we and other countries affected should be consulted before any action was taken.

He also spoke to the leaders of Norway, Japan, France and the US, the other countries affected.

The former head of French intelligence, Alain Juillet, is quoted by Le Figaro as saying that little is likely to emerge of what actually happened at the gas installation for several weeks:

The Algerians have a principle: when they mount an operation, they don't talk about it. From experience, it takes a minimum of 15 days to a month before we start getting a small idea of what really happened.

Juillet added that even then, the accounts of freed hostages would likely be the most useful source of information.

Here is Cameron's statement in full.

I would like to make a statement about the hostage crisis in Algeria and the tragic events of the last three days. The whole house will share my disgust and condemnation at this brutal and savage terrorist attack that has been unfolding in Algeria.

Our thoughts and prayers this morning are with those still caught up in this incident, with their families, who are waiting anxiously for news, and with those who have already lost loved ones.

Mr Speaker, I have this morning chaired another meeting of the Cobra emergency committee and just come from speaking again to the Algerian prime minister.

He then took the house through what had happened so far.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, terrorists attacked a gas installation run by BP, the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian company Sonatrech in In Aminas in south-eastern Algeria near the Libyan border.

The terrorist group is believed to have been operating under Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a criminal terrorist and smuggler who has been operating in Mali and in the region for a number of years and who has been affiliated with Al Qaida in the Maghreb.

Mr Speaker, In Aminas is some 18 hours by road from the capital, Algiers. It is in the middle of the Sahara desert and one of the most remote places in the world. As a result it takes time to get a complete picture and the full details are still emerging.

But according to the information we have from the Algerian authorities, the terrorists first attacked two buses en route to the Aminas airfield before attacking the residential compound and the gas facility at the installation.

It appears to have been a large, well-coordinated and heavily-armed assault and it is probably that it had been pre-planned. Two of those travelling in the convoy to the airfield were very sadly killed, including one British national, and his family were informed on Wednesday.

A number of other workers were taken hostage by the terrorists in separate locations both at the residential compound and at the gas facility.

The precise numbers involved remain unclear at this stage but the hostages included British nationals, along with the nationals of at least seven other countries, and of course many Algerians.

The TSA news service has tweeted a report from Algeria's state radio citing an official source as saying 18 militants are confirmed killed in the ongoing operation at In Amenas.

Reuters is citing a local source as saying 30 hostages, including several westerners, and 11 of their captors were killed in yesterday's Algerian army assault on the gas installation.

That would seem to tally with the information published earlier by the Algerian news service TSA (Tout sur l'Algerie – see 10:19 update).

At least 22 foreign hostages are still unaccounted for, including 14 Japanese and eight Norwegians.

Cameron says it is vital the families get all the support possible. The police and BP are doing that. Three flights left Algeria yesterday carrying 11 BP employees.

He says he is coordinating with British and western companies about security at other plants.

He has "taken precautions" to ensure the security of diplomatic posts in the region.

He advises against all but essential travel to Algeria.

The motives of the terrorists are difficult to determine at this stage. Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb aspire to impose Islamic law in the area.

Ed Miliband thanks Cameron for his statement and says it is appalling that innocent, decent people have been targeted in this way.

Britain stands united in condemnation. The hostage takers bear responsibility.

He asks if the families of those affected will get support and care.

He says there are a number of other foreign-owned installations in the region. How is the government liaising with these companies?

What is the government's advice for UK nationals in the region?

What are the motives of the terrorists and what is Cameron's assessment of the risk of such groups?

Cameron says it is the terrorists who are responsible for the loss of life.

He says he stands with the Algerian government.

This is a continuinng situation and he will do his best to keep parliament informed, he says.

It is a large and complex exercise and they are still pursuing hostages, Cameron says.

Last night the number of British citizens at risk was less than 30 – that has been significantly reduced but the prime minister says he cannot say more at this stage.

Cameron says he emphasised to Algeria the paramount importance of ensuring the safety of the hostages and offered armed help.

But on Thursday morning the Algerians mounted an operation – the UK had not been informed in advance.

Early on Wednesday morning terrorists attacked the gas installation, he says.

The group is believed to be operating under Mokhter Belmokhter, who is affiliated with Al Qaida in the Maghreb.

It is in one of the most remote places in the world.

They first attacked two buses en route before attacking the residential compound.

He calls it a large and well coordinated assault.

Two travelling in the convoy were killed, including one Briton.

A number of others were taken hostage. Precise numbers are unclear but Britons are among them.

He says he has chaired Cobra and spoken to the Algerian PM this morning.

David Cameron has begun his statement to MPs. The prime minister says he is disgusted and condemns the terrorist attack.

A UN refugee agency says 12 people have died and 20 were injured in more fighting in a Palestinian camp in Damascus between Syrian rebels and gunmen loyal to the regime.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees says fighting has intensified in the Yarmouk camp in recent days, AP reports via Lebanon's Daily Star.

Children were among the casualties, UNRWA said.

AP said the Yarmouk camp has been the scene of heavy clashes between rebels and regime loyalists since mid-December, when opposition fighters moved into the camp during an attempt to storm the capital.

David Cameron has just set off from No 10 to the Commons to deliver his statement to MPs on the hostage crisis. We'll be covering it live here.

The French news weekly Le Point, citing judicial cources, says on its live feed that the Paris public prosecutor is to open a formal inquiry into the hostage-taking and subsequent Algerian army operation.

As many as eight Norwegians on the site are still unaccounted for, the Norwegian broadcasting organisation NRK reports via Norway Post.

Statoil, one of the In Amenas plant's joint operators, said one Norwegian Statoil employee held hostage in Algeria had managed to escape and was receiving medical care at a local hospital. His condition was stable and he has been in contact with his family in Norway.

The company added that meant nine of 17 Statoil staff employed at the site were safe but eight Norwegian Statoil staff members were unaccounted for.

Two Statoil-chartered planes left Algeria this morning carrying 40 Norwegian employees from other Statoil installations in the country.

Norwegian authorities said the Algerian military action against the Islamist militants holding the Statoil/BP gas plant was "stillnot finished on Friday morning".

The Algerian news service TSA (Tout sur l'Algérie) quotes a "well-informed local source" as saying only a few Islamists remain in the facility.

The same source told the agency that yesterday's operations had resulted in the deaths of 31 people: 20 hostages and 11 Islamists. Two further militants were captured alive, the source told TSA: one from Mali, and the other from Algeria. This information has not been independently verified.

TSA also cites a a local leader, Knaoui Sidi, as saying attempts were made to negotiate with the hostage-takers yesterday but no further efforts would be made today.

"There is no possibility of further negotiations," Sidi said, noting that the hostage-takers had refused to receive a delegation of local Touareg leaders yesterday. "Algerian special forces will mount an assault."

The Daily Record says that two Scots were freed last night from the Algerian gas plant, and names one as Mark Grant, 29, from Grangemouth. Another Scot was also held hostage, the paper reports. The two Scots it does not name are from Fife and Renfrewshire, it says.

Douglas Alexander, the British shadow foreign secretary, has suggested the situation may go on for days.

Alexander told Sky News he understood the situation might still be going on and so the PM might be "constrained" in what he is able to report to the Commons this morning.

He said these might be dark "hours and days" for the relatives of British people working in In Amenas, adding: "If this operation is not yet fully concluded there [may be] more developments yet to come."

Here's a map showing where In Amenas gas field is.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency warned in its monthly report on prospects for the oil and gas sector that events at Algeria's In Amenas gas facility are "casting a dark cloud over the outlook for the country's energy sector".

Algeria has some of north Africa’s biggest oil and gas reserves and is seen as having huge unexplored potential in its desert regions. It has larger proven natural gas reserves than Iraq and some 12bn barrels of oil.

I may have missed this earlier, but the Algerian communications minister, Mohamed Said Belaid, has given some description of the raid and its consequences. He said the military operation succeeded in "neutralising a large number of terrorists and freeing a large number of hostages ... But unfortunately, we are sorry to say, there were some deaths and injuries."

It will be David Cameron making this morning's Commons statement, which will be at 11am.

Algeria's apparently unilateral decision to storm the gas plant is straining diplomatic relations with some of the countries whose nationals were held hostage: AFP reports that Japan’s foreign ministry has summoned the Algerian ambassador to demand answers over the operation.

A foreign ministry official confirmed Sid Ali Ketrandji had been called in to see the foreign minister’s deputy: “The meeting was over the incident,” he said, without revealing what was said.

Stephen McFaul, the Irish engineer from Belfast who escaped the hostage crisis, has said he saw four Jeeps full of hostages blown up by Algerian troops, according to the Irish Times. He also said he had had explosives tied around his neck and had been bound and gagged. His brother, Brian McFaul, said:

[The gunmen] were moving five Jeeploads of hostages from one part of the compound.

At that stage, they were intercepted by the Algerian army.

The army bombed four out of five of the trucks and four of them were destroyed ... He presumed everyone else in the other trucks was killed ... The truck my brother was in crashed and at that stage Stephen was able to make a break for his freedom.

Brian McFaul said it was unclear whether the vehicles had been struck by missiles fired from helicopters or by ground forces.

At least a dozen Japanese citizens remain unaccounted for and Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is cutting short his first foreign visit since taking office to focus on the crisis, AP reports.

Abe will return home immediately after holding talks and news conference with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono today.

Reuters quoted Japan's senior government spokesman,Yoshihide Suga, as saying: "The action of Algerian forces was regrettable."

Reuters is reporting that an American plane has landed in In Amenas airport, about 30 miles from the gas complex, to pick up American hostages.

Here's David Cameron on the situation.

France, with its history of colonial rule in Algeria, is being less critical of Algiers than the UK. Interior minister Manuel Valls advised against criticising the north African state and hailed its efforts to end the stan-off.

Speaking from Australia, William Hague, the British foreign secretary, told Sky News:

This remains a fluid and evolving situation and many details are still unclear, but the responsibility for the tragic events of the last two days squarely rests with terrorists who chose to attack innocent workers, murdering some and holding others hostage.

Our priority remains at the moment to identify exactly what has happened to each British national caught up in this incident and, indeed, to help other countries determine what has happened to their nationals.

The Commons statement will be made at 11am, Patrick Wintour tells me.

Ian Lucas, the shadow foreign minister, has tweeted: "In Commons awaiting 11am Govt Statement on dreadful Algerian hostage
crisis. A sombre, grey morning."

France's interior minister, Manuel Vallis, has said Paris is in contact with two French hostages who have left the gas facility. Vallis told RTL radio information from In Amenas was patchy and he could not say if the operation was over.

One French hostage, Alexandre Berceaux, an employee of a French catering company, told Europe 1 radio he had remained hidden for nearly 40 hours, eating supplies brought to him by Algerian colleagues. He said:

When the military came to get me, I did not know whether it was over. They arrived with colleagues [Algerians who worked with him], otherwise I would never have opened the door.

Berceaux said Algerian military forces were still combing the enormous gas site for hostages when he was escorted to a nearby military base. "They are still counting them up." He expected to be taken home to France soon.

He said there could be other hostages still hidden on the site.

Angelique Chrisafis reports from Paris that the “living quarters” at the In Amenas site have reportedly been secured, with a total death-toll that has not yet been officially released. But the Algerian special forces are still surrounding the working area of the gas facility where hostage-takers remain.

The Press Association reports that No 10 was "dismayed" when the Algerians launched their assault on the gas complex yesterday. The news agency says David Cameron was informed it was under way when he telephoned his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmalek Sellal, yesterday morning, despite having asked to be kept fully updated. Offers of British help had been declined. BBC Radio 4 reported this morning went further than "dismay", describing "anger" at No 10 over the sequence of events.

The Press Association has more on Stephen McFaul, the Irishman who has escaped the kidnappers. He fled after the vehicle he had been travelling in crashed after coming under attack from Algerian forces. He was able to run off and make it to safety. His sister said he was currently with officials in Algeria in a debriefing exercise.

The BBC is reporting that up to 20 Britons may be among the hostages. Their current situation is unknown.

Here’s a round-up from the Middle East and north Africa this morning:

Algeria

The violent end to this standoff is only the start of a new chapter in the country's savage history, writes Nabila Ramdani.

Details of offensive emerging slowly, but fears are growing that early estimates of casualty numbers will rise dramatically, write Angelique Chrisafis in Paris and Julian Borger.

Syria

A schism is developing in northern Syria between jihadists and Free Syrian Army units, which threatens to pitch both groups against each other and open a new phase in the Syrian civil war, reports Martin Chulov from Aleppo.

Israel

Facebook is increasingly being used as a political tool, and a group of Israelis are using the social networking site to challenge conventional democracy in next week's election, reports Harriet Sherwood. The initiative, called Real Democracy, has allowed hundreds of Israelis to "donate" their votes to Palestinians as a symbolic protest at what they perceive as a lack of democracy.

Welcome to today’s continuing coverage of the Algerian hostage crisis, and events across the Middle East and north Africa.

Here is the latest:

The British Foreign Office says the crisis at the In Amenas gas field in Algeria “remains ongoing”. BBC reporters suggested this meant the military attack on the kidnappers had ended but Algerian forces were now searching the site.

Up to 30 hostages are feared dead following the raid by Algerian troops, including at least two Britons. Amid conflicting, contradictory and incomplete information, David Cameron, the British prime minister, warned of further bad news to come. It is currently unclear how many hostages have been killed, how many escaped, and how many had been freed, and what has happened to the kidnappers. Irishman Stephen McFaul, 36, from Belfast, one of the hostages, made contact with his wife to say he was free and safe yesterday.

Cameron cancelled a long-awaited speech on his attitude towards the EU and will chair a meeting of the UK’s Cobra emergency committee this morning. William Hague, the foreign secretary, cut short a visit to Australia and there is expected to be a statement to the Commons this morning.

The Battalion of Blood or Signed in Blood Islamist group attacked the In Amenas gas facility operated by BP, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s state firm on Wednesday, kidnapping dozens of foreigners and perhaps hundreds of Algerian workers. They said the hostage crisis was in response to France’s military intervention in neighbouring Mali. One Briton and one Algerian died in the initial attack.

Here is this morning’s Foreign Office statement:

The terrorist incident in Algeria remains ongoing. The prime minister spoke twice to his Algerian counterpart, prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal, on Thursday.

He chaired Cobra twice on Thursday, and will chair another meeting on Friday morning; Cobra will continue to meet as long as the crisis lasts.

As the prime minister and foreign secretary have said, to the best of our knowledge on the information given to us by the Algerian government, one British national has sadly been killed.

We are not in a position to give further information at this time. But the prime minister has advised we should be prepared for bad news.

Our priority will remain the safety of British nationals and their co-workers. We cannot provide any details that might endanger their lives. But we are working round the clock to resolve this crisis.

You can read all yesterday’s developments as they happened here.

And we’ll be covering today’s events as they happen in Algeria and across the region here.