The hostage rescue operation at an Algerian gas facility is over, a state news agency reported. At least 30 hostages, including seven foreigners, were killed during the siege, a security source said.
The final death toll, however, has not been released yet. Among the deceased foreigners were at least two Britons, two Japanese and one Frenchman.
Security sources also said that at least 11 militants were killed, including three Egyptians, two Algerians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, a Frenchman and a Malian, Reuters reports.
Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said confirmed earlier that there had been “several deaths and injuries” among the hostages.
“An important number of hostages were freed and an important number of terrorists were neutralized,” Said told state media.
A spokesman for the al-Qaeda-linked Malian militant group behind the seige, however, claimed earlier that 34 hostages and 15 kidnappers had been killed after a helicopter attacked the group’s convoy.
