Some 35 hostages and 15 Islamist militants in the Algerian crisis have reportedly been killed in a helicopter attack launched by the Algerian military, reports the AP. Those numbers, however, were released by the militants, who also announced that seven of the 41 hostages taken, including two Americans, are still alive. An Algerian official had said earlier that 20 foreign hostages had escaped before the raid. Confused by the dubious math? As Francois Holland said at a press conference today, the situation is "very confused." Al-Jazeera reports that the dead include lead kidnapper Abu Al Baraa. His group says the deaths occurred as they tried to leave the remote Sahara gas plant with their hostages.
CNN reports that the militants, who attacked workers as they rode a bus early yesterday, had initially sought safe passage to Libya, which is 40 miles away from the facility, but an Algerian official said no dice: "We have received their demands, but we didn't respond to them." While the attackers say they're responding to France's actions in Mali, British foreign secretary William Hague has raised doubts: "That is a convenient excuse, but usually operations like this take longer to plan." Still, the crisis could be a bad omen for similar attacks across the region, notes the Guardian. (More Algeria stories.)
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