Algerian Hostage Crisis Continues

… with details continuing to  emerge:

Some militants remain holed up in a gas facility in the Algerian desert and are still holding a number of hostages, the Algerian state news agency APS said on Friday.

“(The army) is still trying to achieve a ‘peaceful outcome’ before neutralising the terrorist group that is holed up in the (facility) and freeing a group of hostages that is still being held,” APS said, quoting a security source.

A military operation rescued a total of 650 hostages, 573 of whom were Algerians, APS sai

This follows a botched rescue attempt by Algerian military forces — a situation made worse by the fact that Algeria failed to warn other countries of the efforts in advance:

A rescue mission by Algerian commandos to free captured Americans and other hostages from the clutches of an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group turned into a bloody desert debacle Thursday.

Anywhere from six to three dozen of the captives were reportedly killed when a government chopper attacked a bus packed with prisoners and terrorists as it tried to escape from a natural gas plant deep in the Saharan desert.

…

The Algerians did not warn the West they were attacking the terrorists.

That left the Brits incensed. … “The Algerian prime minister explained that the situation was very fast-moving and that in the government’s judgment they needed to act immediately,” a British government spokesman told Reuters. “The Algerians are aware that we would have preferred to have been consulted in advance.”

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.