Americans, others held by militants in Algeria

Foreign-operated gas field seized; 2 die

— Islamist militants seized a foreign-operated gas field in Algeria early Wednesday and took 20 or more foreign hostages, including Americans, according to an Algerian government official and the country’s state-run news agency, in what appeared to be a retaliation for the French led military intervention in neighboring Mali.

The Algerian agency said at least two people had been killed in the gas-field seizure, including one British citizen, and that the hostages included American, British, French, Norwegian and Japanese citizens.

Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokesman, told reporters in Washington that an unidentified number of U.S. citizens were believed to be among the captives, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, traveling in Italy, seemed to raise the possibility that the United States might take military action in response.

“By all indications this is a terrorist act,” Panetta said. “It is a very serious matter when Americans are taken hostage along with others.” He also said: “I want to assure the American people that the United States will take all necessary and proper steps that are required to deal with this situation.”

The exact number of people being held was still far from certain. A top Algerian government official said 20 Islamist militants had attacked the gas field and that security services had “encircled the base” so that “no one can leave.” Concerning the number of hostages, he said that “the situation is confused for the moment,” and that there might be as many as 30. “We don’t have precise figures for now.”

As for the 20 attackers, he said, they arrived heavily armed, in three unmarked vehicles.

“That’s how they slipped through,” he said.

All told, up to 40 workers could be held, according to oil company officials with interest in the field. A Japanese official confirmed that Japanese citizens were involved, and the Irish Foreign Ministry said one Irish citizen had been kidnapped. Some news agencies said as many as 41 people were seized.

The attack on the gas field appeared to be the first retribution by the Islamists for the French’s armed intervention in Mali last week, potentially broadening the conflict beyond Mali’s borders and raising the possibility of drawing an increasing number of foreign countries directly into the conflict.

Western off icials had long warned that a Mali intervention, designed to halt an Islamist militant advance in that country, could incite a backlash far beyond Mali’s borders.

Algeria, which has its own long history of fighting Islamic militancy, suggested it would show no tolerance for the gas-field attackers.

“The Algerian authorities will not respond to the demands of the terrorists and will not negotiate,” Algeria’s interior minister, Daho Ould Kablia, was quoted as saying by the official news agency.

The attack occurred at the fourth-largest gas development in Algeria, In Amenas, and at its gas-compression plant, which is operated by BP, the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian national oil companySonatrach.

Bard Glad Pedersen, a Statoil spokesman, said that of 17 Statoil employees working in the field, only four safely escaped to a nearby Algerianmilitary camp.

“There is a hostage situation,” he said.

“We do not provide further information how we are dealing with the situation. Ourmain priority is the safety of our colleagues.”

The Sahara Media Agency of Mauritania, quoting what it described as a spokesman for the militants, said theywere holding five hostages in a production facility on the site and 36 others in a housing area, and that there were as many as 400 Algerian soldiers surrounding the operation.

But that information could not be confirmed, and the agency’s report on the specifics of where the hostages were held raised questions about its credibility.

Fighters with links to al-Qaida’s African affiliate, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Mauritanian and Algerian news agencies. They quoted militants claiming that the kidnappings were a response to the Algerian government’s decision to allow France to use its airspace to conduct strikes against Islamists in Mali.

Islamist groups and bandits have long operated in the deserts of western Africa, and groups of Islamists have occupied the vast expanse of northern Mali since last year. In retaliation for the Frenchled effort to drive them out, those groups, including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, have pledged to strike against France’s interests on the continent and abroad, as well as those of nations backing the French operations.

In France, security has been reinforced at airports, train stations and other public places.

The militant groups are financed in large part through ransoms paid for the freeing of Western hostages, and regular kidnappings have occurred in the West African desert in recent years. Seven French citizens are being held there now.

The attack Wednesday was carried out by a “heavily armed” group of “terrorists” traveling in three vehicles, the Algeria Interior Ministry statement said, and targeted a bus transporting foreign workers to a nearby airport at 5 a.m.

Information for this article was contributed by Clifford Krauss, Elisabeth Bumiller and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/17/2013

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