ALGIERS – The gas plant at In Amenas is giving up its secrets as Algerian special forces picking their way through the vast complex find dozens of bodies, some charred beyond recognition in the bloody end-game to one of the worst hostage crises in years. Five days after 40 fighters raided the desert facility not far from the Libyan border and Algeria responded with a full-on military operation to kill or capture them, a picture of what happened is beginning to emerge. While some of the hostages escaped in the early stages of the crisis, hopes faded for dozens of others, foreign workers and Algerians, once the army decided to take on the raiders. Those who escaped had harrowing tales to tell. One Briton recounted how the attackers had strapped Semtex plastic explosive to his neck, bound his hands and taped his mouth shut. Another man hid for more than a day and a half under his bed as jihadist fighters searched the workers' residential complex. Algerian sources said the attackers had come from Libya, but two of the fighters whose bodies were recovered appeared to be Canadian. Workers from the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Romania, Norway and the Philippines were either dead of missing, with the overall death toll among hostages and militants put at 80 and rising. The In Amenas gas plant probably felt impregnable to many who worked there - fenced in, hundreds of miles from anywhere and with the Algerian army patrolling its desert approaches. That was a mirage. Libya, an ex-police state turned arms bazaar and now open for militants, lies just 50 miles away. And in any case, the enemy was probably already inside the gates. At least some the guerrillas who stormed in before dawn Wednesday had driven along smugglers' tracks across the Libyan border just after midnight, an Algerian security official told Reuters, citing evidence from mobile phones traced to the militants. The militants arrived in nine Toyotas with Libyan plates and painted in the colors of Sonatrach, the Algerian oil and gas company that has a share in the plant, according to the Algerian daily El Khabar. The ease with which they entered the fortified housing compound and nearby natural gas plant left Algerians in little doubt the gunmen had allies among people at the site. “They had local cooperation, I'm sure, maybe from drivers or security guards, who helped the terrorists get into the base,” said Anis Rahmani, editor of Algeria's Ennahar newspaper and a writer on security issues who said he was briefed by officials. Officials in this secretive country said they had discovered cases before when Islamist rebels succeeded in having fellow militants employed by international energy companies. One told Reuters it was possible insiders had cooperated at In Amenas. Locally hired workers who escaped told Reuters of seeing the gunmen moving around the sprawling facility with confidence, apparently familiar with its layout and well prepared. The militants said they launched the raid to halt French military intervention in neighbouring Mali, which began a week ago, however the link is not yet clear. Several European and US officials said the assault seems too elaborate to have been planned in such a short time. It is possible the attack would have happened anyway, or that the French military operation provided a trigger to carry out an attack based on preparations made earlier. Much may never become clear. The raid was carried out in a region closed to outsiders within a country whose government is unused to sharing sensitive information with the public. First word of trouble came crackling over a walkie-talkie to the communications room at In Amenas, where a 27-year-old radio operator called Azedine logged a contact with a bus driver who, at 5:45 a.m. (0445 GMT), left to take some foreigners to the airstrip at the town of In Amenas, some 50 km (30 miles) away. “Moments after the bus left, I heard shooting, a lot of shooting, and then nothing,” Azedine told Reuters on Friday. Two people, one British, one Algerian were killed on two buses heading for the airport. It is not clear whether that incident was part of the plan that secured the militants access to the compound. Almost immediately after the bus skirmish, they were inside, in at least three vehicles. The first Briton to die was identified as a Gulf war veteran who had been in the French Foreign Legion and was working for a security company. People who have worked at the site, which sits with its back to cliffs in the dunes, say there was normally an overnight curfew, leaving it unclear how the gunmen were able to get so close before being challenged. Their initial approach may have been well off the main roads. Freed hostages spoke of an alarm being raised, of frightened people staying in their offices or hiding in their dormitories. Azedine saw a gunman put on the ID badge of a French supervisor who had been shot dead. A French catering firm employee spent 40 hours cowering alone under his bed, terrified he would be killed. Alexandre Berceaux said he had survived by staying in his room away from other foreigners, hidden behind a barricade of wooden planks and having Algerian colleagues sneak him food and water. — Reuters
