Breaking News - 7 hostages dead as Algerian forces storm desert complex: security source.

Algerian hostage crisis - live updates

Breaking News - 7 hostages dead as Algerian forces storm desert complex: security source.(AA).
At least seven captives are reported to have been kiled and 16 foreign hostages freed after the Algerian military stormed a gas installation in the desert where they were being held by al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
Eleven of the fighters were also killed in Saturday's raid, according to the Algerian state news agency.
Those freed included two Americans, two Germans and one Portuguese, sources told Reuters news agency.
The nationalities of the others were not immediately clear.
The fighters had said they were still holding seven foreign hostages at the gas plant, and that their demands of an end to the French military intervention in Mali the release of prisoners remain unchanged
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday, a spokesman for the abductors said that two of those still being held were Japanese, and that the other five people included US, British and Norwegian citizens. He said that the seven were still alive, but would not confirm if they were being held at the gas field in In Amenas or elsewhere.
The spokesman for the group, known as "Signatories in Blood", said that they were still open to negotiations regarding a prisoner swap with the Algerian military, after earlier negotiations broke down and led to an Algerian security services assault on the facility.
The burned bodies of 15 people were found at the site of the gas field on Saturday, but their identities were not clear.
A US citizen was confirmed dead early on Saturday, but uncertainty remains over the fate of other foreigners held at the plant.
"This is an extremely difficult and dangerous situation," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said in Washington at a joint news conference with Fumio Kishida, Japan's foreign minister.
The US State Department identified the dead US citizen as Frederick Buttaccio.
Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, said on Saturday that the United States would "take all necessary steps to protect our people" from the threat posed by al-Qaeda linked fighters in North Africa.
Officials say at least 30 more people remain unaccounted for, and the fate of at least 10 Japanese nationals and six Norwegian hostages is still unknown.
France on Saturday said no more of its nationals were beind held. Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed that one Frenchman had been killed in the attack and that other French nationals taken hostage had been freed.
Vienna said one Austrian had been released. Romania confirmed that three of its nationals who were being held were now free. At least two Filipino workers were also able to escape. Two Norwegians have also been found alive, said the Norwegian oil company Statoil, which manages the plant.Read the full story here, more here.