* Thirty hostages, at least seven foreign, killed - source * More than 20 foreigners still held or missing on Friday * Western governments not consulted, Algiers faces questions * 10 Japanese, 8 Norwegians, "less than 30" Britons at risk By Lamine Chikhi and Abdelaziz Boumzar

By Eamonn Mallie BELFAST, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A hostage who escaped unharmed from Islamist militants in Algeria on Thursday said the Algerian army bombed four jeeps carrying fellow captives and probably killed many of them, his brother told Reuters. Irishman Stephen McFaul, who was among dozens of Western and local captives seized by militants at an Algerian natural gas plant on Wednesday, told his family that he survived because he was on the only one of five jeeps not hit by Algerian bombs, according to his brother Brian.

NOUAKCHOTT, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Thirty-four hostages and 15 of their al Qaeda-linked kidnappers were killed on Thursday in an air strike by the Algerian armed forces, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported, citing one of the kidnappers holding captives at a desert gas field. The news agency, which has close contact with the group which has claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping, said the army's attack came as kidnappers were trying to move their hostages in vehicles to a new location.