Twenty-five bodies have been discovered by Algeria's army in the gas facility attacked by militants in the desert, private Algerian television station Ennahar said on Sunday, adding that the operation to clear the base would last 48 hours.
The bodies are believed to belong to hostages executed by the militants, said Ennahar TV, which is known to have good sources within Algerian security.
Earlier today, Algeria's government said the death toll from the gas plant attacked in the Sahara desert would rise from the 23 hostages initially thought.
"I am afraid unfortunately to say that the death toll will go up," Minister of Communication Mohamed Said was quoted as saying by the official APS news agency, adding that a final death toll would be released in the coming hours.
The previous death toll given by Algeria's Interior Ministry on Saturday was 23 hostages and 32 militants killed during the assault launched by Algerian special forces to end the crisis, with 107 foreign hostages and 685 Algerian hostages freed.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday that three British nationals were confirmed dead after a hostage crisis at a gas plant in Algeria and a further three were feared dead.
"Tragically we now know that three British nationals have been killed and a further three are believed to be dead and also a further British resident is also believed to be dead," Cameron said in a televised statement.
Earlier, Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe convened a government task force meeting on Sunday to discuss the ongoing Algeria hostage crisis.
Abe called for continued efforts to collect accurate information about the situation after the news from the Algerian government that there may be Japanese nationals involved in the fatality.
While struggling to gather information on the condition of Japanese nationals involved in the crisis, the Japanese government called on the Algerian government to cooperate.
Meanwhile, in Yokohama, the public relations manager of Japanese engineering company JGC Corporation, Takeshi Endo, said his company was "faced with a very severe situation" following "the Japanese government's announcement of possible Japanese fatalities."
JGC Corporation, which provides services to the plant attacked by Islamist militants on Wednesday, confirmed early on Sunday that four more of its workers were alive, in addition to the three it had earlier said were alive.
However, other workers remained unaccounted for.
Endo also said on Sunday that of the total of 78 JCG employees working at the complex, 41 more non-Japanese staff have been newly confirmed safe.
In turn,
Norway voiced its concern over 5 of its nationals
with whom they have lost contact.
The hostage crisis began when the
militants, who came from a Mali-based al-Qaida splinter group run by an
Algerian, attacked the plant on Wednesday morning.
Armed with heavy machine guns and
rocket launchers in four-wheel drive vehicles, they fell on a pair of buses
taking foreign workers to the airport.
The buses' military escort drove
off the attackers in a blaze of gunfire that sent bullets over the heads of
crouching workers. A Briton and an Algerian -
probably a security guard - were killed.
Positions
This as President Barack
Obama said Saturday the U.S. stands ready to provide whatever assistance Algerian officials need in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack at a natural gas complex in the Sahara.
In a statement from the White House, Obama said the blame lay with the militants and that the United States condemns their actions.
"This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in North Africa," Obama said. "In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future."
Earlier Saturday, during a news conference in London with Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta, British Defense Minister Philip
Hammond called the loss of life appalling and unacceptable.
"It is the terrorists that bear the sole responsibility," Hammond told reporters.
Hammond didn't criticize Algeria's handling of the attack directly, but he appeared to reference the increased concern from world leaders about the lack of transparency in Algeria's anti-terror operation.
"Different countries have different approaches to dealing with these things," he said. "But the nature of collaboration in confronting a global threat is that we work with people sometimes who do things somewhat different, slightly differently from the way we do them ourselves."
Panetta said that "those who would wantonly attack our country and our people will have no place to hide."
"Just as we cannot accept terrorism attacks against our cities, we cannot accept attacks against our citizens and our interests abroad," he said.