Skip to footer

US death toll rises to three from Algerian hostage crisis

Seven Americans made it out safely from the attack on a gas complex in Algeria. The overall death toll from the standoff has surpassed 80.

|
Anis Belghoul/AP
Algerian firemen carry a coffin containing a person killed during the gas facility hostage situation at the morgue in Ain Amenas, Algeria, Monday. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32 Islamist militants, and three Americans, after a bloody, four-day hostage situation at Algeria's remote Ain Amenas natural gas plant.
  • By Bradley Klapper Associated Press

| Washington

Two additional Americans were killed in last week's hostage standoff at a natural gas complex in Algeria, bringing the final US death toll to three, an Obama administration official said Monday.

Seven Americans made it out safely. The overall death toll from the standoff has surpassed 80.

The deceased Americans were identified as Victor Lynn Lovelady and Gordon Lee Rowan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The official had no details on how the Americans died, and their hometowns were not released. The FBI has recovered the bodies of and notified the families.

Militants who attacked the Ain Amenas gas field in the Sahara had offered to release the pair in exchange for the freedom of two prominent terror suspects jailed in the United States: Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind sheik convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks and considered the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist convicted of shooting at two US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Obama administration rejected the offer.

Last week's desert siege began Wednesday when Mali-based, Al-Qaeda-linked militants attempted to hijack two buses at the plant, were repelled, and then seized the gas refinery. They said the attack was retaliation for France's recent military intervention against Islamist rebels in neighboring Mali, but security experts argue it must have taken weeks of planning to hit the remote site.

One American death was confirmed Friday, that of Texas resident Frederick Buttaccio. Five Americans had been taken out of the country before Saturday's final assault by Algerian forces against the militants.

The US official said two further Americans survived the four-day crisis at an insecure oil rig at the facility. They were flown out to London on Saturday.

Algeria said after Saturday's assault by government forces that at least 32 extremists and 23 hostages of all nationalities were killed. On Sunday, the Algerian bomb squads found 25 more bodies, according to a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. And a wounded Romanian who had been evacuated later died.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to US death toll rises to three from Algerian hostage crisis
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0121/US-death-toll-rises-to-three-from-Algerian-hostage-crisis
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe