(Via Associate Press) Algeria’s special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert on Saturday in a “final assault” aimed at ending a four-day-old hostage crisis, the state news agency reported. It said 11 militants and seven hostages were killed.
The report, quoting a security source, didn’t say whether any hostages or militants remained alive, and it didn’t give the nationalities of the dead. It said the army was forced to intervene after a fire broke out in the plant.
The siege at the Ain Amenas plant, jointly run by BP, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s state-owned oil company, transfixed the world after radical Islamists stormed the complex, which contained hundreds of plant workers from all over the world.
Algeria’s response to the crisis was typical of the country’s history in confronting terrorists – military action over negotiation – and caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens.
The latest deaths bring the official Algerian tally of dead to 19 hostages and 29 militants, although reports on the number of dead, injured and freed have been contradictory throughout the crisis. (more)
Pictures coming out of Algeria yesterday showed French main battle tanks staged for use so it looks like they’d pretty well given up on the idea of an Expendable 2 type of assault. Seems that there were two assaults, one sort of commando-ish and another more likely your standard run-over-’em-with-armor type. I can understand the French reluctance to blah blah blah to the media- it didn’t work out too well and the French hate bad press. I still believe that the Islamic side knew what they were doing and prepared for a suicide stand that would garner press. They didn’t blow up the oil facility and let the Muslim prisoners go, then they hidyho to a compound and await the inevitable assault, first booby-trapping the prisoners. In the end they executed the remaining prisoners. We tend to look at their actions through a Western filter – I’m waiting to see if any of them have ‘Bye Mom and Dad’ videos that will be released, that will cement my belief that this was planned to go down this way since day one. Can’t win these kinds, best you can do is minimize friendly casualties.
D’accord
Uhhh – I thought Honda made that?
Well, one thing’s for sure. And let me be clear: you didn’t make that.
Very funny it does I’m just saying I agree with you
I know, the lateness of the hour and the Seagrams made for a bad pun
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/19/us-sahara-crisis-obama-idUSBRE90I0KO20130119
The headline is Obama seeks “fuller understanding” of what happened in Algeria siege
Can you say “leading from behind”………….
There didn’t formerly seem to be much use for the word feckless. Now there is.
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feckless– adjective
not producing the desired result
Synonyms: counterproductive, feckless, hamstrung, ineffectual, inefficacious, inefficient, inexpedient
Related Words: abortive, bootless, fruitless, futile, nonproductive, pointless, profitless, unavailing, unproductive, unprofitable, unsuccessful, useless, worthless
I am not sure who is friend or foe anymore. Our government blocking our guns while supplying guns to Muslims. When It becomes the US government choice to shoot Americans, i can place a pretty well reasoned guess where the recruiting stations will be located.