Algeria hostage crisis: Live Report

• 18/01/2013 - 10:05

  Algeria hostage crisis: Live Report

  
  

  18 Jan 2013
  

  WELCOME TO AFP'S LIVE REPORT on the Algeria hostage crisis as it enters its third day. Western governments have voiced alarm over the fate of dozens of foreigners seized by Islamists at the In Amenas gas plant in the Algerian desert after several hostages were killed in a dramatic rescue operation.
  Here are some of the latest key developments in what Britain described early Friday as an ongoing "terrorist incident".
  -- An Algerian military operation aimed at freeing the hostages has left "several people" killed or wounded but freed a "large number" of hostages, an Algerian minister said.
  -- Special forces have taken control of a residential compound at the complex wherehundreds of hostages are being held after Islamist militants took control of the gas plant on Wednesday.
  -- Algerian soldiers continue to surround the site's main gas facility which they have so far failed to secure in an air and ground assault. Some 600 local workers were however freed Thursday, including two from Britain, one from France and one from Pakistan.
   . copy  http://www.afp.com/