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The 'final assault' by Algerian troops on a gas plant seized by militants has resulted in the deaths of seven hostages and 11 kidnappers. The militants reportedly summarily executed their captives as troops tried to free them. "It is over now, the assault is over, and the military are inside the plant clearing it of mines," Reuters quoted a local source as saying. Earlier, the militants reportedly made demands and threatened to kill the captives if their ultimatum was not met. The militant group behind the attack, ‘The Battalion of Blood,’ initially said that the hostages were nationals of Great...

The history of the last thirty years of American policy in the Middle East and North Africa can be summed up in two words: unintended consequences.  The US has found itself pressured by outside events into interventions that have ended up backfiring in substantial ways.In most cases, one can argue with good reason that the US advanced other policies that more than compensated for the complications.  In Afghanistan, we armed the rebels in order to help bring down the Soviet Union.  We initially invaded Iraq to repel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait and to protect Saudi Arabian oil fields, which led...

Some of terrorists 'given short-term contracts by the oil and gas giant' Five of Al Qaeda operatives were 'taken alive' by Algerian army todayWitness describes one terrorist speaking with a 'perfect English accent' Some of the terrorists involved in the Algeria hostage crisis in which up to five Britons died had been working at the BP plant where the atrocity took place, it was claimed today.They had been given short-term contracts by the oil and gas giant, allowing them to plan their attack with lethal precision. Five of the Al Qaeda operatives were ‘taken alive’ by the Algerian army today,...

A British security guard was murdered in cold blood just minutes into the siege at the Algerian gas plant, an IT worker caught up in the hostage crisis has told The Mail on Sunday. The Algerian employee, who managed to escape, has given the most detailed account so far of how Islamist terrorists rounded up foreign workers during the four-day stand-off and placed explosives round their necks. Following his escape, the IT worker contacted a friend who remained in the camp and witnessed yesterday’s final onslaught by Algerian troops. Speaking under condition of anonymity after the Algerian army told him...

Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage found "numerous" new bodies on Sunday as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a security official said, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the bodies were badly disfigured and difficult to identify.

President Barack Obama offered on Saturday to provide any assistance the Algerian government needs after a deadly hostage siege at a desert gas plant and said the United States was seeking a "fuller understanding" from Algerian authorities of what took place there.

As his second term is about to begin, we may finally be seeing the emergence of an Obama Doctrine in foreign policy. It's one that looks very much like the Reagan Doctrine.In his 1985 State of the Union address, Reagan asserted that "we cannot play innocents abroad in a world that's not innocent; nor can we be passive when freedom is under siege." He urged that "we must stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which...

Seven hostages were killed by their captors during a final raid by Algerian troops - at least 23 hostages and 32 hostage-takers died in the four-day stand-off, Algerian officials say.Five Britons are feared dead or missing - five Norwegians are unaccounted for. US President Barack Obama said blame for the violent outcome rested with the "terrorists" behind the attack."We will continue to work closely with all of our partners to combat the scourge of terrorism in the region," said Mr Obama.His defence secretary, Leon Panetta, earlier told the BBC the US would go after al-Qaeda wherever they tried to hide....

he Algerian government says 32 militants and 23 captives were killed during the three-day military operation to end the hostage crisis at a natural gas plant in the Sahara. The provisional death toll was issued by the Interior Ministry on Saturday after the special forces operation crushed the last holdout of the militants at the gas refinery, resulting in 11 extremists killed along with seven hostages.

President Barack Obama offered on Saturday to provide any assistance the Algerian government needs after a deadly hostage siege at a desert gas plant and said the United States was seeking a "fuller understanding" from Algerian authorities of what took place there. "The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the families of all those who were killed and injured in the terrorist attack in Algeria," Obama said in his first comments on the hostage crisis. Obama's written statement was issued by the White House after the Algerian army carried out a dramatic final assault to end a...

Official reports from the Algerian interior ministry put the number of deaths following an attack on a gas plant in the Algerian desert at 23 hostages and 32 terrorists. The government also said 107 foreign hostages and 685 Algerian hostages had been released. The deaths came as a result of a four day hostage crisis which ended Saturday in a final assault by Algerian special forces on a group of Islamic terrorists who were holed up, along with the hostages, in a gas facility in the country. .....

Al-Qaida in Algeria The Republic of Mali is a landlocked nation in Northwestern Saharan Africa. Mali is divided into eight regions and has a population of 15 million. The main sources of income for the nation are fishing and agriculture though it is one of the largest producers of gold on the African continent. Since 1992 the country was stable until a coup d’état in March 2012 removed the government and suspended the constitution, claiming that the nation’s President did little to quell a rebellion by a separatist group which was sidelined by al Qaeda trained Islamic terrorist Ansar Dine...

A four day hostage crisis ended Saturday in a final assault by Algerian special forces on a group of Islamic terrorists who were holed up, along with dozens of hostages, in a gas facility in the country. The forces stormed the complex resulting in the deaths of at least 19 hostages and 29 Islamist terrorists. The Niger terrorist believed to lead the al-Qaeda splinter group, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, is reported...among those killed.

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. The report, quoting a security source, didn't say whether any hostages or militants remained alive, and it didn't give the nationalities of the dead. It said the army was forced to intervene after a fire broke out in the plant.

Seven hostages were executed today as Algeria's four-day hostage stand-off came to a bloody end when the country's special forces stormed the remote desert gas plant. The army killed 11 militants during the 'final assault' on Al Qaeda-linked gunmen, but not before they in turn executed seven hostages, the state news agency reported. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed the government had received information that the hostage situation 'has now been brought to an end.' He described the loss of life as 'appalling and unacceptable.'

The Republic of Mali is a landlocked nation in Northwestern Saharan Africa. Mali is divided into eight regions and has a population of 15 million. The main sources of income for the nation are fishing and agriculture though it is one of the largest producers of gold on the African continent. Since 1992 the country was stable until a coup d’état in March 2012 removed the government and suspended the constitution, claiming that the nation’s President did little to quell a rebellion by a separatist group which was sidelined by al Qaeda trained Islamic terrorist Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda in...

Robert Fowler was kidnapped by Mokhtar Belmokhtar's not-so-merry band of terrorists in 2008 and published a book about the experience, "A Season In Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda." From the excerpts I've read, the title accurately sums up Fowler's experience. Belmokhtar's group is, of course, responsible for the recent assault on a natural gas field in eastern Algeria and the subsequent hostage crisis. Fowler, a Canadian diplomat who was serving the United Nations when he was kidnapped, has had some interesting things to say about Belmokhtar and his henchmen. ABC News reports: "I was...

It feels strange visiting a country like Morocco and listening to people extol the virtues of a political system my country waged a revolution against. Morocco has a king, and he’s a real one too, not some kind of a figurehead. But I went there, I listened, and after almost ten years of visiting Middle Eastern countries wracked by tyranny, terrorism, botched revolutions, and wars, I was perhaps a bit more willing to hear what they had to say than I might have been a decade ago. A monarchy is a tough sell for Americans. The founders of our country...

In an effort to conclude the hostage crisis at the Tigantourine gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria, special forces from the Algerian government have begun a second offensive against the Masked Brigade, the terrorists led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Al-Jazeera reported that the renewed rescue effort was launched as the Algerian state media reported that more than 650 hostages were free, but 30 foreigners were still unaccounted for. The Algerian Press Service (APS) reported that the count of foreign hostages prior to the first raid was 132, which conflicted greatly with initial reports of 41. The terrorists threatened to kill the...

Emboldened by America’s projection of weakness abroad, Islamists apparently linked to al-Qaeda reportedly continue to hold about 40 foreign hostages including seven Americans seized Wednesday at a natural gas field in Algeria.At press time, conflicting media reports had been emerging from the region. Some claimed that the hostages have been freed; others, that several hostages have been killed. The mass kidnapping at a BP (formerly British Petroleum) gas site near the Libyan border, which may very well have been accomplished with U.S.-supplied weapons left over from the ouster of the late Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, seems to be a...