Air strike kills kidnappers, hostages in Algeria

Thirty-four hostages and 15 kidnappers has been killed when Algerian army helicopters bombed a gas complex where Islamists were holding more than 40 foreign hostages, one of the kidnappers told Mauritania’s ANI news agency.

According to Algeria’s Ennahar television, 15 foreigners, including a French couple, succeeded in escaping, along with about 30 Algerians.
A group calling itself the "Battalion of Blood" stormed the gas pumping station — operated by British Petroleum, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s state company — and its employee barracks before dawn. The group said it had seized more than 40 foreigners, including Americans, Japanese and Europeans.