A number of hostages have reportedly managed to escape from the natural gas facility in Algeria where hostages from 10 countries have now been held for three days, while some were killed and injured during a raid by the Algerian military and still more remain unaccounted for. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
By Ian Johnston, Courtney Kube and Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News
Many of the Western hostages held by Islamist militants at a gas plant in Algeria were likely inadvertently killed by the country's military, relatives of an Irishman who survived claimed, as security forces continued to besiege the facility Friday.
A day after the attempted rescue operation at the In Amenas gas facility, joint-operator BP said in a statement Friday that the "serious situation" at the plant was ongoing and that the "current location and situation" of a small number of its employees was still uncertain.
U.S. sources said Friday that it now appeared there were a total of five Americans at the plant when the militants stormed the facility, taking dozens of hostages.?According to the sources, three of the Americans were taken hostage, but two managed to escape unharmed.?
One source said the Algerian assault operation was over, but there was still no official word on the fate of the remaining U.S. hostages.
Mauritanian news agency ANI reported that a spokesman for the Islamist group had offered to swap American hostages for two militants jailed in the United States: Omar Abdel Rahman, who is?serving a life sentence at a federal prison hospital?in North Carolina for supporting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other terror plots, and Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist?convicted of trying to kill Americans?after she was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. This could not be verified by NBC News.
Algerian news agency APS reported Friday that a total of 650 hostages, including 573 Algerians, had been freed, citing a security source. The report, which was relayed by Reuters, said there were a total of 132 foreign hostages, suggesting 55 were unaccounted for. These figures, substantially higher than previous reports, could not be verified by NBC News.
The hostages included Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians, Japanese and Algerians in addition to the Americans.
Irishman Stephen McFaul was among the hostages who escaped alive, but his brother Brian said many others appeared to have been killed during an attempted rescue operation by Algerian authorities.
Brian McFaul told Reuters that the Westerners were being moved Thursday in five vehicles with explosives hanging round their necks when the army attacked and destroyed four of the trucks.
McFaul?s vehicle crashed and he was able to make ?a break for his freedom,? his brother told the wire service.
An Obama administration official, speaking on background, said the U.S. was not aware of the Algerian raid in advance. Before the operation, the U.S. had urged the Algerians to be cautious and encouraged them to make the safety of the hostages their top priority.
But the account given to Reuters by Brian McFaul cast doubt on the Algerians' methods:
"[The militants] were moving five Jeep-loads of hostages from one part of the compound. At that stage they were intercepted by the Algerian army.The army bombed four out of five of the trucks and four of them were destroyed," he said. ?
"The truck my brother was in crashed and at that stage Stephen was able to make a break for his freedom," he added. "He presumed everyone else in the other trucks was killed."
?Brian McFaul said he did not speak to his brother directly, but got an account from Stephen's wife Angela after she spoke to him.?The hostages had their mouths taped and explosives hung from around their necks, McFaul added.
However, two British men who were at the plant spoke highly of the Algerian security forces.
"I think they did a fantastic job. I was very impressed with the Algerian army," one said in a television interview, described the incident as a "very exciting episode." "I feel sorry for anybody who's been hurt, but other than that, I enjoyed it."?Another man said Algerian "gendarmes" had "kept us all nice and safe and fought off the bad guys."
In messages posted on Twitter Friday, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said that ?primary responsibility for tragic events in #Algeria rests with terrorists who murdered some & held others hostage.?
?We are working to ensure that those who survived ordeal in #Algeria are properly cared for & reunited with their loved ones,? he said, in a message posted on the British Foreign Office?s Twitter account.
?We shall maintain our resolve to see al-Qaida denied a foothold on Europe's southern border,? he added. ?This terrible incident has highlighted again the threat in North Africa & Sahel from international terrorism.?
Three flights left Algeria Thursday taking 11 BP employees and several hundred employees from other companies to the U.K. and Spain, the British oil giant said. Not all of these people were from In Amenas.
Reuters also cited a local source as saying a U.S. plane had landed at In Amenas airport to evacuate Americans from the area.
The US offered to provide Algerians with special operations forces, hostage rescue and counter-terrorism teams but the Algerians wanted to handle the hostage situation themselves. Obama administration officials say the Algerians did not inform the US in advance of the attack. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
McFaul family via Reuters
Belfast native Stephen McFaul (right) is pictured with his sons Dylan (left) and Jake in this family handout photo taken four years ago and made available Thursday.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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