Algeria says 32 militants, 23 hostages killed
Algiers/Cairo - Thirty-two terrorists and 23 captives were killed in the remote In Amenas gas facility in the Sahara desert, the Algerian Interior Ministry said Saturday, after the military launched a bloody final assault to end a four-day hostage standof
The nationalities of the hostages were not released and the government said this was a provisional toll.
"This intervention resulted in the release of 685 Algerian employees and 107 foreigners," the ministry said, according to the APS state news agency.
The military recovered machine guns, rifles, shotguns, mortars, missiles, missile launchers, rockets, grenades and foreign military uniforms from the site, APS reported.
Seven hostages were executed, the El Watan newspaper reported, by the Islamist insurgents before the military stormed the facility.
The military operation that started Thursday to free a group of foreign and Algerian workers had been criticized by some countries whose citizens were being held.
But on Saturday, French President Francois Hollande acknowledged that Algeria had no choice but to storm the complex.//DPA