Anis Belghoul/Associated Press
An Algerian military truck on a road leading to a Saharan gas field where militants still held at least 10 foreign hostages on Friday.
BAMAKO, Mali — The hostage crisis in the Algerian desert appeared to be reaching a bloody conclusion Saturday as the official Algerian news agency reported that the army had begun a final assault on the gas field taken over by Islamist militants, killing 11 “terrorists,” but only after they had executed 7 hostages.
A senior Algerian government official said Saturday afternoon from Algiers: “In principle, it’s all over,” adding that security forces were “doing cleanup” to make sure some of the kidnappers were not hiding in the sprawling industrial complex.
The news agency report did not give the nationalities of those it said were executed, and it remained unclear if there were other hostages at the plant and whether they were alive. Earlier news reports said between 10 and dozens of hostages, including some Americans, were in the hands of the kidnappers as of Friday.
If the latest Algerian report is correct, it would mean that virtually all the kidnappers had been killed, based on numbers previously supplied by the government.
An Algerian government official, who insisted on anonymity like many officials in Algiers, said the security forces were engaged Saturday afternoon in an extensive search through the complex “to make sure there are no bad surprises.”
He said two American hostages had been found, “safe and sound.”
It was not clear Saturday whether all American hostages had been accounted for. United States officials said last week that “seven or eight” Americans had been in the gas complex when it was seized on Wednesday.
One American, Frederick Buttaccio, 58, of Katy, Tex., was confirmed dead on Friday, and the French government said one of its citizens, identified as Yann Desjeux, had also died. British officials have said at least one Briton was killed.
At a news conference Saturday in London, the British defense minister, Philip Hammond, called the loss of life appalling and unacceptable, and said that he was pressing the Algerians for more specific details.
At the same news conference, the American defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, said details of the events in Algeria remained sketchy but that “lives had been lost.”
British authorities also reported Saturday that its ambassador to Algeria was on his way to the gas plant.
“I’m happy to say that we now have consular staff on the ground at In Amenas. They are already assisting British nationals there. Our ambassador is on the way there with further staff,” the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said in a televised report.
Saturday’s apparent bloody finale brought to an end a three-day siege involving dozens of hostages and kidnappers that drew criticism from Western governments for the tough manner in which it was handled by the Algerian security services. Attacks on the kidnappers by the surrounding forces have caused an unknown number of deaths among the hostages, in addition to those who were executed by the militants themselves.
An Algerian who managed to escape told France 24 television late Friday night, that the kidnappers said the had “come in the name of Islam, to teach the Americans what Islam is.” The haggard-looking Algerian, interviewed at the airport in Algiers, said the kidnappers then immediately executed five hostages.
The Algerian state oil company, Sonatrach, said Saturday that it was trying to remove mines from the gas-producing facility that the attackers had laid with the intention of blowing it up.
Throughout the siege, precise information about the number of killed has been difficult to obtain from the remote site, with the government putting out varying figures.
Before this final attack, Algeria’s state news agency, A.P.S., had said 12 Algerian and foreign workers had been killed since Algerian special forces began their assault Thursday. Previous unofficial estimates of the foreign casualties have ranged from 4 to 35.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 19, 2013
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the nationality of a government official who said security forces were searching the gas complex. The official was Algerian, not Turkish.
Algeria Begins ‘Final Assault’ on Gas Field; 7 Hostages Reported Killed
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