http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-16/seven-americans-among-hostages-captured-algeria-retaliation-over-french-mali-incursi

The attack in southern Algeria also raised fears that the French action in Mali could prompt further Islamist revenge attacks on Western targets in Africa, where al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operates across borders in the Sahara desert, and in Europe.

AQIM said it had carried out Wednesday's raid on the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported.

The Algerian interior ministry said: "A terrorist group, heavily armed and using three vehicles, launched an attack this Wednesday at 5 a.m. against a Sonatrach base in Tigantourine, near In Amenas, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Algerian and Libyan border."

The gas field is operated by a joint venture including BP , Norwegian oil firm Statoil and Algerian state company Sonatrach.

BP said armed men were still occupying facilities at the gas field.

"The site was attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people at about 0500 UK time. Contact with the site is extremely difficult, but we understand that armed individuals are still occupying the In Amenas operations site," it said.

Just because the endless Israel vs Iran pre-intimacy seems to no longer be exciting the world as much as it did all throughout 2010, 2011 and 2012 when military action seemed imminent over and over, it appears the world has a new geopolitical tension point: the recent incursion into Mali by French (and soon many other) forces, to protect "European interests" against "extremists" operating in the North, and as a corollary - the retaliation by the locals against Western Democratic powers. At least such is the simplistic plot line.

Sure enough moments ago Reuters reported that islamist militants attacked a gas field in Algeria on Wednesday, claiming to have kidnapped up to 41 foreigners including seven Americans in a dawn raid in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali, according to regional media reports. The raiders were also reported to have killed three people, including a Briton and a French national. Subsequent reports indicate that the Algerian captives have been let go, and that this is purely an escalation against the invaders, an act which the US state department will harshly condemn at a 1pm press conference, and likely use as a catalyst to unleash US forces in the air or on the ground, to support the French campaign which at last check was going horribly.

The attack took place in the gas field in Amenas, Alegeria, operated by a joint venture of BP, Statoil and the Algerian state company Sonatrach, presented below (via Google Maps)

http://app.debka.com/p/article/22687/Al-Qaeda-threatens-to-blow-up-Algerian-gas-field-with-hostages-

Within 48 hours, this modest “crusader” intervention had united a host of pro-al Qaeda offshoots and allies, some of them castoffs from the army of Libya’s deposed Muammar Qaddafi.

They are led by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb – AQIM; the West African jihadist MUJAO; and the Somali al-Shabaab which is linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – AQAP. Together, they are threatening to execute one by one the 10 or eleven French hostages they are holding as part of their revenge on France.
The French declared their mission to be to dislodge the Islamists from an area larger than Afghanistan in the north, including the principal towns of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal. Without several thousand special forces’ troops on the ground, this is just a pipedream.

The disaffected Touareg tribes are supporting al Qaeda against the French as part of their drive for independence. Their added value is the training in special forces’ tactics some 1,500 Touareg fighting men and their three officers received from the US. The US originally reserved them as the main spearhead of a Western Saharan multi-tribe campaign to eradicate al Qaeda in North and West Africa.
Instead, the Sahel tribesmen followed the Touareg in absconding to Mali with top-quality weapons for desert warfare and hundreds of vehicles from US and ex-Libyan military arsenals.

http://rt.com/news/hostages-mali-algeria-france-142/

"The Algerian authorities will not respond to the demands of the terrorists and will not negotiate," Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia was quoted by state news agency APS.
The United States confirmed on Wednesday that US citizens were among the hostages.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned Algeria's prime minister to discuss the incident, though a State Department spokeswoman would not give any further details as they continue in their efforts to "secure these people."

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said the US "will take all necessary and proper steps" to deal with what he described as a “terrorist attack.” Panetta did not outline what concrete actions the United States would take to deal with the hostage crisis.

An al-Qaeda affiliated group said the raid was executed in retaliation to Algeria’s decision to allow France to use its airspace to launch airstrikes against militants in Mila, where French forces have been targeting Islamists fighters since last week.
A spokesman for the group called Algeria's attitude "a betrayal for the blood of Algerian martyrs slain by the French colonists."

The group further said to ensure the safety of the kidnapped hostages in Algeria, the French attack on Northern Mali must end, Reuters reports.
On Wednesday French troops launched their first ground operation against Islamist rebels following six days of airstrikes.
French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday French forces would remain in Mali until stability was returned to the conflict-torn West African state.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21038856

Islamists entered Diabaly on Monday, taking the town from Malian forces. French war planes have since attacked the rebel positions.

French army chief Edouard Guillaud said on Wednesday that ground operations had begun.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian added: "Today, the ground forces are being deployed. Until now, we had made sure there were a few ground forces in Bamako to keep our people safe... Now French ground forces are heading up north."

A convoy of 50 armoured vehicles left Bamako overnight.

French troops have been fighting Mali's Islamist rebels in street battles in the town of Diabaly, Malian and French sources say.

In the first major ground operation in the conflict, French special forces were fighting alongside Malian troops.

IS NIGERIA PREPARED FOR REPRISAL ATTACKS, THEY HAVE ALREADY ATTACKED ALGERIA?

I think the best thing now is to watch as the drama unfolds.

A member of an Islamist group styling itself the "Blood Battalion" was quoted by Mauritanian media as saying that five of the hostages were being held at the gas facility and 36 were in a housing area. APS said the Islamist raiders had freed Algerians working at the gas facility.

"The operation was in response to the blatant interference by Algeria and the opening of its air space to French aircraft to bomb northern Mali," the Islamist spokesman told Mauritania's ANI news agency.

''Malian'' terrorists did no such thing.

The gunmen holding folks hostage in Algeria are not Malian.

Neither are the terrorists holding Mali hostage Malian, but Arab foreigners.

this is another pretext for the west to expand their occupation into Algeria as part of the africom project.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/17/us-sahara-crisis-idUSBRE90F1JJ20130117


Hollande, who won wide praise for ordering air strikes and sending troops to the former French colony, said little in response. In office for only eight months, he has warned of a long, hard struggle in Mali and now faces a risk of attacks on more French and other Western targets in Africa and beyond.

The Algerian government ruled out negotiating and the United States and other Western governments condemned what they called a terrorist attack on a facility, now shut down, that produces 10 percent of Algeria's gas, much of which is pumped to Europe.

The militants, communicating through established contacts with media in neighboring Mauritania, said they had dozens of men at the base, near the town of In Amenas close to the Libyan border, and that they were armed with mortars and anti-aircraft missiles.

They said they had repelled a raid by Algerian forces after dark on Wednesday. There was no government comment on that. Algerian officials said earlier about 20 gunmen were involved.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/algeria/9807218/Britons-caught-in-al-Qaeda-Algeria-oil-plant-siege.html

A spokesman for BP refused to comment on the number of Britons missing or harmed. “Our absolute priority is the safety and security of our staff,” he said.

Victoria Nuland, a spokesman for the US State Department, said: “Beyond confirming that there are Americans among the hostages, I will ask you to respect our decision not to get into any further details as we try to secure these people.”

Dahou Ould Kablia, Algeria’s interior minister, insisted that there would no negotiations with the Islamists. “The authorities will not respond to any of the terrorists’ demands,” he said.
One of the hostages said the kidnappers were demanding the release of 100 Islamist prisoners in exhange for their freedom.

A spokesman for the Islamists told Mauritanian news agencies that Algeria had “betrayed the blood of its martyrs” and that the attack was “in response to the flagrant interference of Algeria by authorising the use of its airspace by French planes to conduct raids against northern Mali”.

They promised more retaliatory strikes, I hope Nigeria is prepared.