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Ali Kafi, Algeria head of state during civil war years, dies

April 16, 2013 09:16
Algeria's former head of state Ali Kafi, who was appointed after president Mohamed Boudiaf's assassination in 1992 and held office during a bloody period in the country's civil war, died Tuesday aged 85. Kafi, an army colonel who headed the military-backed High Committee of the State (HCE) until his replacement by Liamine Zeroual in 1994, died "in Geneva following an illness," the presidency said in a statement. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced eight days of mourning.

At desolate Algeria gas plant, hope for new start

January 31, 2013 20:16
By Lamine Chikhi TIGUENTOURINE, Algeria, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Algerian engineers at the In Amenas natural gas plant are working to get at least some of the desert facility back to work in the coming days, two weeks after three dozen foreign workers were killed in an Islamist hostage siege.

Canadian police in Algeria to investigate gas plant attack

January 24, 2013 16:45
OTTAWA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Canadian police are in Algeria looking for evidence that Canadian citizens were involved in last week's attack and hostage-taking at a desert gas plant, a government official said on Thursday. Around 70 people died when Algerian troops stormed the plant and ended the siege on Sunday. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said a Canadian gunman, identified only as "Chedad," had coordinated the operation.

Algeria hostage-takers threaten more attacks - SITE

January 21, 2013 05:45
DUBAI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The Mulathameen Brigade that claimed the mass hostage-taking in Algeria threatened to carry out more attacks unless Western powers ended what it called an assault on Muslims in neighbouring Mali, according to the SITE monitoring service. In a statement on Monday, the al Qaeda linked group, whose name means "The Masked Ones", said the hostage-takers had offered negotiations on freeing the captives seized at a gas plant in Algeria but the Algerian authorities used military force, SITE reported.

Briton recounts terrifying escape from Algeria siege

January 20, 2013 12:45
LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A British survivor of the Algerian gas plant siege described on Sunday a nerve-racking escape across a stretch of desert and a moment of terror when he feared he had fallen into the hands of the hostage takers. The Algerian authorities say at least 23 hostages and 32 militants were killed in the four-day siege, a preliminary death toll they expect will rise when they have finished clearing out the remote gas plant deep in the Sahara. Hundreds of Algerian workers and scores of foreigners escaped.

UPDATE 1-Up to six Britons killed in Algeria, Cameron says

January 20, 2013 06:31
LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Three British nationals have been confirmed killed during a hostage crisis at a gas plant in Algeria, and a further three Britons along with a resident of Britain are believed to have died, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday. Islamist militants seized the remote compound in the Sahara desert before dawn on Wednesday, taking a large number of hostages. Details are still emerging of what happened when the Algerian army launched an assault to end the siege on Saturday.

WRAPUP 6-Algeria hostage crisis death toll hits 80, could rise further

January 19, 2013 21:00
* Six militants captured alive * Hostage death toll rises to 48 * France, Britain defend Algerian response * Algeria says gas plant to restart in two days By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS, Algeria, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Algerian troops found 25 bodies of hostages at a bomb-littered gas plant deep in the Sahara desert on Sunday, a day after ending a four-day siege, a security source said, raising the death toll of militants and their captives to at least 80.

UPDATE 1-Obama seeks "fuller understanding" of what happened in Algeria siege

January 19, 2013 21:00
(Adds quotes, details) WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama offered on Saturday to provide any assistance the Algerian government needs after a deadly hostage siege at a desert gas plant and said the United States was seeking a "fuller understanding" from Algerian authorities of what took place there. "The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the families of all those who were killed and injured in the terrorist attack in Algeria," Obama said in his first comments on the hostage crisis.

Survivors describe horrors of Algeria desert siege

January 18, 2013 17:30
* Recall two-day ordeal at isolated natural gas plant * Witnessed killings, hid in fear from Islamist militants * Fate of many hostages remains unknown By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A Frenchman spent a day and two nights in terror, boarded up under his bed, certain he would be found and killed. An Algerian radio operator saw his French supervisor's corpse. A Northern Irish engineer saw four truckloads of other hostages blasted to pieces in an Algerian military strike.

UPDATE 2-UK's Cameron says Britons still at risk in Algeria

January 18, 2013 10:00
* Cameron "disappointed" Algeria gave no warning of rescue * Britons at risk, but number much lower than 30 people * Cameron condemns "savage attack", offers support By Mohammed Abbas LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday he was disappointed Algeria gave him no advance warning of an operation to rescue hostages held in a desert gas facility and warned that Britons caught up in the crisis were still at risk.
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