From The New York Times:
PARIS — Islamist militants seized a foreign-operated gas field in Algeria early Wednesday and took 20 or more foreign hostages, including Americans, according to an Algerian government official and the country’s state-run news agency. The attackers called the move retaliation for the French-led military intervention in neighboring Mali.
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Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, told reporters in Washington, “The best information that we have at this time is that U.S. citizens are among the hostages.” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, traveling in Italy, told reporters that the United States would “take all necessary and proper steps” in response to the gas-field seizure, calling it a “terrorist attack.”The exact number of people being held was still far from certain. A top Algerian government official said 20 Islamist militants attacked the gas field and that security services had now “encircled the base” so that “no one can leave.” Concerning the number of hostages, he said that “the situation is confused for the moment,” and that there might be as many as 30. “We don’t have precise figures for now.”
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Fighters with links to Al Qaeda’s African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to both Mauritanian and Algerian news agencies.../blockquote>
http://www.nytimes.com/...
MSNBC recently reported that the US confirms that 3 Americans are among the hostages.
AP has a story on it:
http://hosted.ap.org/...