Hostage Accounts Detail Events at Saharan Gas Plant

Associated Press

Algerian soldiers at the In Amenas gas plant during a visit for the news media last month.

TIGUENTOURINE, Algeria — The goal of the heavily armed militants who seized the desert gas plant here is becoming increasingly clear: to turn the forest of pipes and tubes into a giant bomb, and to blow up everything and anyone around. What none of them knew was exactly how, in the endless maze of metal, to do it.

The hundreds of workers at the plant when it was taken over last month found themselves caught between the ruthless militants on the inside and an Algerian Army ringing the perimeter that was bent on showing no weakness. As the realization dawned on the captors that they, too, were essentially captives, they grew agitated and more aggressive, witnesses say. Moreover, the plant's operations had shut down during their initial assault.

Bristling with weapons, they made their demands known to the remaining employees: restart the plant, get the compressors working again and turn the power back on.

"They pushed me very hard to restart the plant," said Lotfi Benadouda, the Algerian plant executive whom the militants singled out as the man in charge. "Their objective was to move the hostages to the plant. They wanted to get to the factory with the hostages, and explode it."

A more complete view of the hostage drama in the Sahara that began the morning of Jan. 16, and of the militants' motives in carrying it out, has emerged as some of the captives provided detailed accounts of the four-day standoff, which left at least 37 foreign hostages and 29 kidnappers dead.

Their accounts contradicted some of the Algerian government's public assertions about the crisis and supported others. At times, the government said the militants planned to destroy the gas complex and kill the hostages en masse, but it provided no details or evidence to back up that assertion. At other times, government officials, defending a military raid on the facility, said the militants sought to flee and take captives into the desert, an assertion that some of the captives contradicted.

Now it seems clear that the siege was about more than disabling the plant, and that holding hostages for ransom was not part of the plan. Instead, the militants sought to orchestrate a spectacular fireball that could have killed everyone in the vicinity. While that plot could offer more justification for the Algerian government's take-no-prisoners response, questions remain about whether the standoff could have been ended with fewer lives lost.

To visit the plant is to appreciate both its vulnerability and the opportunity it afforded the militants, who traveled a mere 30 miles through the Sahara's sands, across the border from Libya, to attack it.

The plant's production towers rise suddenly and starkly out of the nearly featureless desert landscape at Tiguentourine after a 45-minute drive from the nearest Algerian settlement, the town of In Amenas. The isolation appears total; there is nothing around it but a sea of sand.

The fierceness of the fight to retake the complex by Algerian security services over four days in mid-January is still evident. Bullet holes pockmark the low, sand-color living quarters; deep gashes in one wall are a testament to the artillery fired on both sides. Between the living quarters and the plant itself, a 10-minute drive, a jumble of shredded, carbonized vehicle remnants stick out from the sand.

Still unclear was whether some of the carnage was avoidable, as officials in foreign capitals have suggested. The Algerians remain convinced their doctrine of no negotiations and maximum force was the right course of action.

What appears increasingly certain is that the attackers benefited from inside help. They used a map to guide them around the facility, and at least one of them had once worked at the plant as a driver, officials said. But what the militants lacked was the technical expertise to execute the dramatic ending that some captives say was envisioned.

The Algerian authorities credit one of the facility's security agents at an outer guard post with sounding a crucial alarm before being shot in the head. The guard, Lahmar Amine, has since been hailed as a national hero in the Algerian news media, and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal credited him with allowing workers at the plant to shut down gas production.

Others said the militants might have inadvertently cut the power during their assault, thus preventing the plant from operating.

Adam Nossiter reported from Tiguentourine, and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin. Reporting was contributed by Clifford Krauss from Houston; Henrik Pryser Libell from Oslo; Martin Fackler and Makiko Inoue from Tokyo; Stanley Reed, Lark Turner and John F. Burns from London; and Ravi Somaiya from New York.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Hostage Accounts Detail Events at Saharan Gas Plant

Dengan url

https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/02/hostage-accounts-detail-events-at.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Hostage Accounts Detail Events at Saharan Gas Plant

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Hostage Accounts Detail Events at Saharan Gas Plant

sebagai sumbernya