Algeria hostage crisis: Britons die in bungled rescuehttp://tgr.ph/13JhpyJ
The Telegraph 
7:53 PM - 17 Jan 13 · Details
By James Kirkup and Gordon Rayner
10:39PM GMT 17 Jan 2013
A botched military attack on a BP gas plant in Algeria, where al-Qaeda kidnappers were holding 41 westerners, led to a bloodbath as helicopter gunships opened fire on the compound.
The attack was carried out against the wishes of Mr Cameron and other Western leaders, who had urged Algeria to negotiate with the kidnappers after the captives said bombs had been strapped to their bodies.
At least one Briton was reported to have died, following the death on Wednesday of another Briton when the hostages were taken.
Senior Downing Street sources said they were braced for “multiple British casualties”. Mr Cameron warned that the country “should be prepared for the possibility of further bad news”.
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On Thursday night the hostage crisis appeared to be approaching a disastrous climax amid growing international anger over Algeria’s handling of the situation. According to one report, 34 hostages were dead, but conflicting accounts suggested six westerners had been killed.
Reports from Algerian state news agency APS claimed that the Algerian army was in control of just part of the natural gas complex.
Local officials in the southeastern region of Illizi had said the army’s raid was over late Thursday, but later clarified that only the residential area, where the majority of the hostages were being held, had been secured, saying the army was still surrounding the gas facility itself.
More than eight hours after the attack began, Downing Street was still unclear about precisely what had taken place. Mr Cameron said: “It’s a fluid situation, it’s ongoing, it’s very uncertain.”
In a statement Thursday night, Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, said: “Although details have yet to become final I am afraid we should be under no illusion that there will be some bad and distressing news to follow from this terrorist attack.”
