British reaction
The British government held a meeting of its Cobra emergency committee this morning, which focused on establishing what had happened to missing Britons and repatriating the bodies of those who died.
David Cameron’s spokesman also made a statement about the prospect of UK military involvement in north Africa:
Clearly in Mali at the moment there is a military response in terms of French forces supporting the Malian government.We very much support the French in that but our position about troops not being in a combat role is completely unchanged with regard to Mali.More widely, as the foreign secretary was saying in the context of Somalia, when it comes to military roles our view is very much that they should be regionally-led.
The spokesman was asked about Cameron’s view of Algeria’s handling of the siege. His comments indicated that No 10 are rowing back somewhat on their criticisms from last week:
We were always very clear that there there were difficult decisions that faced the Algerian authorities. It was a fluid, fast-moving event. We were not going to rush into making judgments.The prime minister said yesterday that we should be very clear that the responsibility for the loss of life lies with the terrorists.We recognise what the Algerians have done to co-ordinate with us. He thanked them for that and he also noted the Algerian loss of life and the fact that this was an attack against an Algerian site.
Asked about claims made during the siege by the hostage-takers' leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, that he had been in contact with British officials during the siege, Cameron's spokesman said: "We don't negotiate with terrorists. That has always been and remains our policy. I have seen these reports but I am not going to go into details."
'How kidnappers arrived'
An Algerian newspaper has published more details of how the attack by Islamist militants began.
El Khabar reported that the kidnappers arrived in cars painted in the colours of state energy company Sonatrach, one of the operators of the gas facility, but with Libyan number plates, according to Reuters.
The newspaper also said that the president of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack.
Israel
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has been out on the stump today trying to rally his vote in the run-up to tomorrow’s general election. At a campaign appearance in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said:
I have no doubt that many, many people will decide at the last minute to come home to Likud-Yisrael Beitenu. I have a good feeling. And at the last minute, I appeal to each and every citizen going to the ballot box: 'Decide for whom you are going to vote - for a divided and weak Israel or for a united and strong Israel and a large governing party?'
Friday’s polls were the last allowed to be published. They showed Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud-Beiteinu alliance set to be the largest party, although his support has dipped somewhat. He is widely expected to bring ultra-nationalist party Jewish Home into government, something that is thought to mean dire prospects for any hope of a peace settlement with the Palestinians.
British attitude
The BBC reports that Downing Street wants to emphasise that there will be no combat role for British troops in north Africa, in order to play down speculation raised by David Cameron's reaction to the Algeria crisis that Britain was about to intervene in a repeat of its involvement in Afghanistan. This morning in the No 10 briefing, referring to Mali, Cameron's spokesman said the British were best able to help by providing logistical and intelligence support.
Updated
British relative hits out
A relative of a survivor of the Algerian crisis has hit out at the British authorities, BP (which part-operates the In Amenas site) and recruitment company Orion, saying they did not keep family members updated during the crisis. Malcolm McCloud, brother of businessman Lewis Allen McCloud, who is now back safely in Devon, said:
None of these fed any information, despite being told we would be the first to know. The lack of information from all the relevant sources was very poor. We were kept up to date from friends who worked in the oil and gas industry and the news.
Canadians
On Sunday, AFP asked Canada's foreign ministry to comment on reports that Canadians were among the hostage takers. The foreign ministry said it had no further information. “We remain in contact with the Algerians to obtain more information,” a spokeswoman said.
Dead and missing
Here is a round-up of what we know so far about how many people have been killed and are missing following the Algerian hostage siege:
Dead
32 Islamist militants, according to the Algerian government.
58 hostages, including the nine Japanese people reported to have been found today and one Romanian who is reported to have died in hospital. The dead hostages include six from the Philippines, three from Britain, two from Romania, one from the US and one from France.
Missing
Japan: 10 Japanese working at the plant are unaccounted for, according to their employer JGC Corp. It is unclear whether this includes the nine reported dead this morning.
Norway: Five Norwegian employees of Statoil are still missing, the energy company said yesterday.
Britain: Three other Britons still missing and feared dead, the UK government said yesterday. Another British resident, born in Colombia, is also feared dead.
Philippines Four Filipinos are still missing, a government spokesman said.
Malaysia: Two Malaysians are missing, the government says.
US: The number of possible American hostages is still unclear. One Texan is dead, the US has confirmed. The militants at first said they were holding seven American hostages, but there has been no official confirmation if any Americans are unaccounted for.
Updated
Canadians
Reuters has more on the news that Algerian special forces have found the bodies of two Canadians among the dead Islamist fighters found at the gas facility.
A security source told the news agency that documents found on the bodies of two of the militants had identified them as Canadians.
An official Algerian source has said that the militants included Arabs, Africans and those from outside Africa.
Meanwhile Algerian oil minister Youcef Yousfi has visited the In Amenas plant and said physical damage was minor. The facility would start up again in two days, he said.
North Africa map
My colleagues in the graphics department have put together this impressive map of the various difficulties faced by north Africa. Click here for the full version.
Updated
Mulathameen threat
Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Mulathameen Brigade – of which the Signatories in Blood group that carried out the Algerian kidnapping seems to have been a sub-group – has threatened to carry out further attacks unless the west ended its military intervention in Mali, the Site monitoring service reports.
The group, which boasts that it is linked to al-Qaida, said:
We promise all the countries that participated in the Crusader campaign against the Azawad region [northern Mali] that we will carry out more operations if they do not reverse their decision.
It also claimed to have offered to negotiate with the west and Algeria:
We opened the door for negotiations with the westerners and the Algerians, and granted them safety from the beginning of the operation, but one of the senior [Algerian] intelligence officials confirmed to us in a phone call that they will destroy the place with everyone in it.
It is unclear whether this negotiation refers to an apparent offer by the group on Friday to release the American hostages in exchange for the release of Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, who are in jail in America on terrorism charges.
The statement was published on Mauritania's ANI news agency website, which has seemed to be in touch with the terrorists throughout the crisis.
Updated
Cameron statement
David Cameron's statement to the Commons on the Algeria hostage crisis will be at 3.30pm, Andrew Sparrow reports.
Libya
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, told BBC Radio 4 this morning that the west's intervention in Libya had "mitigated" the crisis in Mali. Hague said the spread of weapons and extremism could have been even worse if Muammar Gaddafi's regime had survived for longer. He said:
We were involved, if you recall, in saving lives in Libya. I think, actually, if we had not been doing that, because what we did actually shortened the Libyan conflict, these problems would have been, if anything, even greater.If the Libyan conflict had gone on for longer, there would have been an even greater flow of weapons and an even greater opportunity for extremists to take hold in Libya.While the Libyan situation may well have contributed to what has happened in Mali, I think the action that the Western world took in Libya, if anything, mitigated that.
Syria
Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Istanbul have postponed forming a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition said today. The SNC is recognised as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people by a number of countries, including the UK, US and France.
Yesterday’s talks were the second attempt by the opposition to form an alternative government as the civil war in the country continues.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group affiliated to the SNC, said132 people had been killed yesterday, including 50 in the capital and its suburbs. Thirteen people have died already today, the group said.
Reuters reports that power struggles within the SNC have hindered its attempts to form a transitional government since it was formed in December. A five-member committee is to put forward proposals for a government within 10 days, it said today. The committee would "consult opposition forces and the Free Syrian Army and friendly states to get their opinion about forming the government and the extent to which they can honour the necessary commitments for its financial and political viability," the coalition said in a statement.
Sources at the negotiations in Istanbul said that Syrian National Coalition president Moaz Alkhatib had flown to Qatar to secure promises of financial aid for a transitional government in rebel-held areas.
Meanwhile the Syrian government said a power cut hit Damascus and its suburbs overnight, blaming the blackout on a rebel attack on the main power line to the capital.
Residents told the Associated Press that power had returned to limited areas this morning.
Canadians
Two dead Islamist militants found inside the Algerian gas facility were Canadians, an Algerian security source has told Reuters. More details soon ...
Good morning and welcome to today’s live blog on the Middle East and north Africa.
Here are this morning’s headlines:
Algeria
• The death toll of hostages following the end of the four-day siege of the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria now stands at 57. At least nine Japanese people were today reported to have been killed, while yesterday Algerian troops reportedly found the bodies of 25 more hostages. Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners are thought to have escaped. Three Britons have been confirmed dead and three more, along with one British resident, are also thought to have been killed.
• Some 32 Islamist militants are reported to have been killed in the raid. Six have been captured and Algerian troops are still searching for others. Islamist militant Mokhtar Belmoktar claimed responsibility on behalf of al-Qaida for the attack on the gas facility on Wednesday – which led to a bloody assault the next day by the Algerian armed forces that lasted until Saturday – in a video, and said about 40 terrorists took part in the attack.
• The Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, is expected to give details about the siege at a press conference today. David Cameron, the British prime minister, is to address the Commons on the situation this afternoon.
• Spectacular as the hostage crisis has been, it does not mean we have returned to the dark days of the early 2000s, writes al-Qaida expert Jason Burke.
It is because militant attacks have been so infrequent – or at least distant – that this recent episode has had such an impact. Bin Laden is dead, al-Qaida's ability to cause harm greatly reduced, and the local dynamics that now characterise the impossibly fragmented world of contemporary extremism make militant groups resilient but render complex 9/11-type attacks almost impossible to organise. Extremism remains a threat, and an evolving one, but the danger is not "existential".
Syria
• Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Istanbul have postponed forming a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition said on Monday, in a setback for efforts to fill a power vacuum in the war-torn country. More on this shortly.
• The British government has been urged to help hundreds of Syrian students in the UK left without money and at risk of deportation amid the crisis in their homeland, which has caused the Syrian embassy in London to grind to a halt and seen sanctions imposed on their country's banks, writes Peter Walker.
Israel
• Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to rebuff international demands to allow a Palestinian state with a border based on the pre-1967 Green Line and its capital in East Jerusalem, as hardline pro-settler parties and factions are expected to make unprecedented gains in Tuesday's election, writes Harriet Sherwood.
• As Obama begins his second term there is little sign of the determination to break the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he took office in 2008, which he then characterised as an open sore afflicting the whole Middle East, writes Chris McGreal. Instead, disillusioned former peace negotiators and Middle East policy officials expect his "dysfunctional" and confrontational relationship with Netanyahu to stagger along even if the Israeli prime minister returns to power after Tuesday's election with a government even further to the right of the present one.
All this and more throughout the day here.
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