Mali (and Beyond) Live Coverage: France Prepares Ground Operations While Insurgents Seize 41 Foreigners in Algeria
Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 6:27 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2126 GMT: Algeria. Algerian State Television has confirmed that at least four foreigners have been killed into today's attempted hostage rescue:
Two of the victims were Britons and the other two Filipinos, the report said after the end of the operation was announced late on Thursday.
Communication Minister Mohamed Said said earlier that troops had been forced to act after talks with the kidnappers failed.
He said many fighters had been killed in the operation at the In Amenas gas field.
Sources for Reuters report that the death toll may be much higher:
Quoting an unnamed Algerian security source, Reuters reports that 30 hostages were killed in the gas plant attack, including 7 foreigners. The report does not give the nationalities of the foreigners who died.
Eleven militants from six different countries – including one from France – also were killed, the report says. The militants' nationalities were given as 3 Egyptians, 2 Algerians, 2 Tunisians, 2 Libyans a Frenchman and a Malian.
Meanwhile, David Cameron has cancelled a planned speech, but did say that the UK needs to be "prepared for the possibility of further bad news."
1814 GMT: Algeria. A summary of the press conference at the US State Department: