Algeria's government spokesman confirmed some hostages were killed in a continuing military operation at a desert gas plant on Thursday but said troops had been forced to act to free them after talks with their captors failed.
In the first official comments by the government on the day's events, Communication Minister Mohamed Said was quoted as telling state news agency APS that many militants had been killed and that efforts to free foreign hostages were going on.
He acknowledged there had been "several deaths and injuries" among the hostages, however.
According to reports of news agencies, six foreign hostages and eight of their captors were killed when
Algerian forces fired on a vehicle being used by besieged gunmen at a
gas plant in the remote Algerian desert on Thursday, a local source told
Reuters.
An Irishman who was among a group of gas workers has been freed and is safe, Ireland's Foreign Ministry said.
"He has been in touch with his family. We understand that he is safe and well. He is no longer a hostage," a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry told Reuters.
Mauritania's ANI news agency, which has been in
constant contact with the kidnappers, said seven hostages were still
being held: two Americans, three Belgians, one Japanese and one British
citizen.
The standoff, which began when gunmen stormed the gas
plant on Wednesday morning demanding a halt to a French military
operation in neighboring Mali, has unfolded into one of the biggest
international hostage crises in decades.
An Algerian security
source said 25 foreign hostages had escaped alive. The local source in
the town who gave the death toll in the strike said 180 Algerian
hostages had also managed to flee.
Britain and Norway, whose oil
firms BP and Statoil run the plant jointly with the Algerian state oil
company, said they had been informed by the Algerian authorities that a
military operation was under way.
ANI and Qatar-based Al Jazeera
reported that 34 of the captives and 15 of the captors had been killed
when government forces fired from helicopters at a vehicle.
However, those death tolls were far higher than confirmed by the local
source and also contradict the reports that large numbers of foreigners
escaped alive.
Governments around the world have been holding
emergency meetings to respond to the crisis, which sharply raised the
stakes in a week-old French campaign against al Qaeda-linked rebels in
the Sahara.
French President Francois Hollande
confirmed on Thursday that there were French nationals among Western
hostages being held by Islamist militants at a gas plant in Algeria.
Hollande
said that while the situation was very confused, he had total faith in
the Algerian authorities' ability to resolve the crisis and would be
speaking to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika later in the day.
Earlier,
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also expressed his
confidence in the Algerian authorities to resolve the hostage situation,
with Britain holding similar stances.
The spokesman said
Cameron had reached that decision after speaking with the prime
ministers of Japan and Norway, whose nationals are believed to be among
the hostages along with a number of Britons.
A group calling itself the "Battalion of Blood" said
it initially seized 41 foreigners, including Americans, Japanese and
Europeans, after storming the gas pumping station and its employee
barracks before dawn on Wednesday.
The attackers have demanded an
end to the French military campaign in Mali, where hundreds of French
paratroopers and marines are launching a ground offensive against rebels
a week after Paris began firing on militants from the air.
Positions:
The White House said on Thursday
it believed Americans were among the hostages held by militants at an Algerian
gas plant, was concerned about reports of loss of life in an operation by
Algerian forces and was seeking clarification from the Algerian government.
"This is an ongoing situation and we
are seeking clarity," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters when
asked about the Algerian military operation to break the desert siege.
President Barack Obama was being briefed regularly by his national security
team, he said.
Carney said the US government was still
trying to determine the number of casualties and who they were, and was also in
touch with BP officials in London. He said there was no immediate confirmation
of al Qaeda links to the hostage situation and Washington was trying to find
out what group was behind it.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said people had to prepare for "bad news" after Algerian forces launched an operation to free foreign hostages at a remote desert gas plant on Thursday.
"The Algerian armed forces have now attacked this compound," Cameron told BBC TV. "It is a very dangerous, a very uncertain, a very fluid situation and I think we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility of bad news ahead."
A spokesman for his office confirmed that Cameron had postponed a highly-anticipated speech on Britain's future role in the European Union because of the crisis.