The French military strikes against Islamic rebels in Mali brought a first riposte earlier today when other Islamist fighters took about 40 foreigners hostage in Algeria, at a remote natural gas complex near the Libyan border.
Algerian soldiers are currently trying to dislodge the al Qaeda-linked terrorists but face a hard slog since they are heavily armed and battle-hardened. The results are likely to be bloody for the hostages if the military and the terrorists have a shootout. They are being held in a difficult-to-reach worker’s compound at Ain Menas, about 800 miles south of Algiers.
Numbers are still unclear as the hostages were taken about 22 hours ago but may include about 12 Norwegians, seven Americans and others from Britain and Japan.
Whatever the numbers, this is one of the largest cases of hostage taking in a North African country and presents difficult challenges because the terrorists succeeded in entering a complex that is very heavily guarded by the Algerian military and private security personnel.
The Algerian, British, American and French governments have not said much so far because of the difficult communications from the site and fear for the safety of hostages. It is possible that the attackers came from Libya, where thousands of well-armed and trained Islamic extremists are prowling the remote border regions since the weak government has almost no control.
The Obama administration will have another foreign crisis on its hands if the terrorist attack on Benghazi, which killed a US ambassador, the hostage taking in Algeria and the insurgency in Mali are found to be conducted by an alliance of Islamic fighters trying to acquire power and territory.
Despite claims by some Islamist groups, it is not yet clear who is behind the hostage taking. Referring to the hostages, Oumar Ould Hamaha, an insurgent leader in northern Mali with links to Libya was quoted as saying “We have struck a blow to the heart (of the international community). It’s the United Nations that gave the green light to this (the French) intervention and all Western countries are now going to pay a price. We are now globalizing our conflict.”
Many apprehended this the kind of nightmare when French warplanes started bombing insurgents in Mali to halt their advance in open vans towards a major city in central Mali on the way to Bamako, the capital.
After that first success, the French have had an uphill struggle and today began a land assault. This is perilous because Paris has sent about 500 soldiers, who are far from enough to patrol or chase experienced guerrilla fighters across a vast territory almost twice the size of Texas. The UN Security Council gave its support to the French military intervention earlier this week.
Algeria allowed French warplanes to fly over its territory and closed its border with Mali on January 14, three days after France started the bombing. But the closure is ineffectual because such a long and poorly demarcated frontier in desolate terrain is very hard to patrol.
None of the governments whose citizens are among the hostages will pay ransom or even negotiate with the terrorists. So some European analysts familiar with North Africa think that the major companies at the Algerian complex will work through mercenaries and private consultants to find ways to negotiate or retaliate. That is partly because mercenaries will have fewer legal constraints than government commandos.
The companies at the natural gas complex include British Petroleum, Statoil and Algeria’s state-run Sonatrach. Japan’s JGC Corp and America’s Kellogg, Brown & Root are reported to be the main on-site contractors.