The In Amenas hostage crisis began on 16 January 2013, when al-Qaeda-linked terrorists affiliated with a brigade led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar took expat hostages at the Tigantourine gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria. One of Belmokhtar's senior lieutenants, Abdul al Nigeri, led the attack and was among the terrorists killed. After four days, the Algerian special forces raided the site, in an effort to free the hostages.
At least 39 foreign hostages were killed along with an Algerian security guard, although the true figure is not known, as were 29 terrorists. A total of 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners were freed. Three terrorists were captured.
It was one of many attacks in the Maghreb carried out by Islamist groups since 2002. There is evidence that the threat was increasing prior to this incident. There is also evidence of a direct threat to expat workers.
Attack
The most detailed publicly available information about the attack comes from the transcript of the eyewitness evidence given to HM Coroner in London. Another source of information is the website for the In Amenas inquest. Tigantourine gas facility is located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south-west of In Amenas, close to the Libyan border and about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) south-east of Algeria's capital city, Algiers. The Algerian state oil company Sonatrach operates the gas field jointly with the British firm BP and the Norwegian firm Statoil. It supplies 10% of Algeria's natural gas production.
The crisis began in the early morning of 16 January 2013. Around 32 Islamist terrorists in 4 to 5 vehicles, who had entered Algeria from Libya and northern Mali, attacked a bus transporting employees from a natural gas plant near the town of In Amenas in far eastern Algeria, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of the border with Libya, killing a number of the employees. At 5:40 AM, terrorist gunmen in Toyota Land Cruisers stormed the Base de Vie (accommodation block). The terrorists also attacked the Central Processing Facility (CPF) itself. The terrorists rigged the plant with explosives, and threatened a "tragic end" should attempts be made to free the captives.
As the assault began on a bus carrying expats, a guard named Mohamed Lamine Lahmar succeeded in activating a plant-wide alarm, warning the whole site that a terrorist attack was in progress. Lahmar's actions made it possible for some people to hide and for others to shut down essential processes of the site and possibly prevent its destruction from explosives detonation. Lahmar was shot to death by the terrorists immediately afterward. In addition, a British citizen was also killed and at least seven others were injured during the initial capture of hostages and assault on the plant.
For a number of hours, the gunmen hunted door-to-door for foreigners. They dragged people from their hiding places, beating some who did not cooperate, and shooting others as they tried to run away. Some foreigners had their hands bound behind their backs, and some had their mouths taped. The gunmen affixed bombs to some of the captives. Some foreigners were helped by local Algerians, who helped them hide.
Subsequently, Algerian security forces surrounded the facility. At midday local time on 17 January the terrorists at Base de Vie decided to drive to meet those in the CPF. They loaded hostages into 6 vehicles and drove out onto the road. During the 3 km journey they were attacked by the Algerian military and all 6 vehicles were stopped. 4 were blown up and 2 were riddled with bullets. See the transcript of evidence at the London Inquest. A few hostages managed to escape, including some Britons who helped other hostages.
Some expats who were hiding in the CPF escaped on 18 January after the terrorists spotted them and opened fire. They walked for miles across the desert before they were rescued.
On 18 January in the afternoon the terrorists detonated a bomb at the CPF murdering some hostages and the military attacked the CPF bringing the siege to an end.
Perpetrators
An al-Qaeda-affiliated group, known variously as both Katibat al-Mulathameen ('The Masked Brigade') and al-Muwaqqi‘ūn bi-d-Dimā' (Arabic: الموقعون بالدماء 'Those who Sign with Blood'), perpetrated the attack. The terrorists were under the command of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, known also as Khalid Abu al-Abbas.
Belmokhtar, a veteran of Algeria's civil war and the Soviet–Afghan War and dubbed "The Uncatchable" by French intelligence, was a senior commander in al-Qaeda's local branch before deciding to form his own armed Islamist group late in 2012 after an apparent fallout with other terrorist leaders. Despite the split, his fighters remain loyal to al-Qaeda, a fact mentioned in their communication with the media after the initial assault.
The Algerian Prime Minister said 32 terrorists were involved in the attack, and that three were Algerian while the rest were made up of eight nationalities, including 11 Tunisians, 2 Canadians, plus Egyptian, Malian, Nigerian, and Mauritanians. An Algerian news website had reported that three Egyptians, two Algerians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, one Mali national, and one French national were among the attackers, but the French Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls disputed the presence of a French national among the attackers.
Initially, Abdelmalek Sellal stated there was at least one Canadian dead among the hostage-takers, but did not identify him. He later identified the Canadian man only as "Chedad", and that "Chedad" had co-ordinated and headed the attack; survivors had described a young hostage-taker with fair skin, blond hair, and blue or green eyes, who spoke in perfect North American English. This led to intense media speculation in Canada, and the story quickly became a daily headline for several weeks. The two Canadian attackers' remains were later identified as those of as Ali Medlej, 24, and Xris Katsiroubas, 22, two friends, both of London, Ontario. The two along with a third friend, 24-year-old Aaron Yoon, also from London, traveled to Mauritania in 2011 to study Islam and the Arabic language.
All three were born in Canada, and attended London South Collegiate Institute. Medlej was raised Muslim; Katsiroubas, a Greek-Canadian, and Yoon, a Korean-Canadian, converted to Islam from Greek Orthodox and Catholic, respectively, during their high school years. At some point in late 2011, Yoon became separated from Medlej and Katsiroubas. In December 2011, in Mauritania, Yoon was arrested, charged, and convicted of terrorism, and sentenced to 18 months in prison, more than a year before Medlej and Katsiroubas staged the attack in Algeria. Yoon has maintained his innocence. In 2012, he was visited by an official from Amnesty International, but requested that the circumstances of his arrest and detention remain confidential. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Yoon was also visited by a Canadian government official in 2012. Yoon's family was unaware of his detention until more than a month after the hostage crisis, believing he was still studying Islam and the Arabic language.
Yoon was briefly interviewed by the CBC in early 2013, via cellphone, while a group of inmates surrounded him to protect him from the guards and other inmates. CBC News reported 9 May 2013 that at least one among Medlej and Katsiroubas Canadian militants worked at the plant.[26] Yoon was released from prison in July 2013, and subsequently arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport; the Canadian authorities are not expected to lay any charges against him. Residents of London, both known and unknown to the trio, have expressed shock and disbelief at their deaths and the circumstances of their deaths. Medlej was variously described by high school friends as a good student who "got high marks but would hide it from his peers", played high school football, was loud, funny, a "wannabe thug", "kind of an ass sometimes, depending who he was with", a "good guy who stood up for a friend (who was being picked on)", and would on occasion slam his fist against a locker in frustration. Friends said Medlej was not very serious about his Muslim faith, saying that he would drink alcohol and smoke. Katsiroubas was described by friends as being seriously invested in his faith, devoutly attending prayers at the mosque; Yoon has been described as private on the subject of his conversion to Islam, and uninvested in his schoolwork, until his conversion to Islam apparently provoked "academic curiosity" within him.
On 19 January, Algerian state media announced that 11 of the hostage-takers were killed after a military offensive which ended the siege. Seven hostages were executed by the perpetrators during the offensive.
Algeria's Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said on 21 January that 29 of the attackers had been killed and 3 captured alive. The New York Times reported that one of the captured attackers said the Egyptians involved in the attack were also involved in the 2012 Benghazi attack.
Libyan hardline Islamist sources declared that the kidnappers had logistical support from Islamists in Libya, such as aiding the media to contact the terrorists, while local Algerian outlets like Numidia News or TSA said that the attackers wore Libyan uniforms, had Libyan weapons and vehicles.
Demands
The terrorists demanded an end to French military operations against Islamists in northern Mali, in return for the safety of the hostages. A spokesman claiming to represent the "Masked Brigade" (or al-Mulathameen Brigade) said the hostage seizure was a response to Algeria's opening of its airspace to French warplanes that bombed Mali's civilians five days prior. Another report mentioned a demand for the release of Aafia Siddiqui and Omar Abdel-Rahman, both held in American prisons on terrorism-related convictions. Other reports suggested the hostage-takers demanded the release of about 100 Islamist prisoners held in Algeria. They also demanded safe passage to Northern Mali and ransom for their expat hostages.
Hostages
According to U.S. officials, 132 foreign nationals were taken hostage. In all, more than 800 people were taken hostage. According to the eyewitness accounts at the London Inquest the terrorists were only interested in expats and did not tie up any Algerian Nationals. A statement released by the Islamist group to a Mauritanian news agency said they had 41 foreign nationals. Five were reportedly being held at the gas facility, and the rest at a nearby housing unit. The number included 13 Norwegians (4 of whom escaped to a nearby military camp), 7 U.S. citizens, 5 Japanese, 1 Irish, as well as nationals from France, Romania, and the United Kingdom. France 24 broadcast parts of a phone conversation with a French hostage, who said he was being held along with British, Japanese, Filipino, and Malaysian nationals.
On 17 January 2013, one Algerian security official told the Associated Press that at least 20 foreigners had escaped. Algeria's private Ennahar TV channel cited 15 foreign hostages, including 2 Japanese, a French couple and the sole Irish national, as having escaped or been freed. Earlier, the Algeria Press Service news agency reported that some 30 Algerian workers managed to free themselves.
According to U.S. officials, 100 of the 132 foreign nationals had either escaped or been set free by mid-day 18 January. The same reports stated that 500 Algerians had been rescued as of 18 January. One American worker was also confirmed dead on 18 January.
Deaths
On 19 January, 11 terrorists and 7 hostages were killed in a final assault to end the standoff. In addition, 16 foreign hostages were freed, including 2 Americans, 2 Germans, and 1 Portuguese.
One Algerian hostage (a security guard) and 39 foreign hostages from nine different countries were killed during the attack. The nationality breakdown of the dead hostages, as of 25 January 2013, was as follows:
Algerian rescue operation
Minister of Interior Dahou Ould Kablia said the Algerian government would not "respond to the demands of terrorists", and would not negotiate with the hostage takers.
On the afternoon of 17 January 2013, the Algerian Special Intervention Group began an assault on the complex using helicopter gunships and heavy weapons. Algerian commanders explained they launched the assault because the gunmen had demanded to be allowed to take the hostages abroad. The Mauritanian news agency ANI said the assault came while the terrorists were attempting to move hostages by vehicle. An Irish engineer who survived is reported as having said he saw four trucks of hostages being blown up by the Algerian forces. Hostages in two other SUVs were freed by the Algerian forces.