The most detailed publicly available information about the attack comes from the transcript of the eyewitness evidence given to HM Coroner in London. Another source of information is the website for the In Amenas inquest. Tigantourine gas facility is located about south-west of
In Amenas, close to the Libyan border and about south-east of Algeria's capital city, Algiers. The Algerian state oil company
Sonatrach operates the
gas field jointly with the British firm
BP and the Norwegian firm
Statoil. It supplies 10% of Algeria's
natural gas production. The crisis began in the early morning of 16 January 2013. Around 32 Islamist terrorists in 4 to 5 vehicles, who had entered Algeria from
Libya and northern Mali, attacked a bus transporting employees from a
natural gas plant near the town of
In Amenas in far eastern Algeria, about west of the border with Libya, killing a number of the employees. The terrorists rigged the plant with explosives, and threatened a "tragic end" should attempts be made to free the captives. As the assault began on a bus carrying expats, a guard named Mohamed Lamine Lahmar succeeded in activating a plant-wide alarm, warning the whole site that a terrorist attack was in progress. Lahmar's actions made it possible for some people to hide and for others to shut down essential processes of the site and possibly prevent its destruction from explosives detonation. Lahmar was shot to death by the terrorists immediately afterward. In addition, a British citizen was also killed and at least seven others were injured during the initial capture of hostages and assault on the plant. For a number of hours, the gunmen hunted door-to-door for foreigners. They dragged people from their hiding places, beating some who did not cooperate, and shooting others as they tried to run away. At midday local time on 17 January the terrorists at Base de Vie decided to drive to meet those in the CPF. They loaded hostages into 6 vehicles and drove out onto the road. During the 3 km journey they were attacked by the Algerian military and all 6 vehicles were stopped. 4 were blown up and 2 were riddled with bullets. See the transcript of evidence
at the London Inquest. A few hostages managed to escape, including some Britons who helped other hostages. Some expats who were hiding in the CPF escaped on 18 January after the terrorists spotted them and opened fire. They walked for miles across the desert before they were rescued. On 18 January in the afternoon the terrorists detonated a bomb at the CPF murdering some hostages and the military attacked the CPF bringing the siege to an end.
Perpetrators An
al-Qaeda-affiliated group, known variously as both
Katibat al-Mulathameen ('The Masked Brigade') and
al-Muwaqqi‘ūn bi-d-Dimā' (Arabic: الموقعون بالدماء 'Those who Sign with Blood'), perpetrated the attack. The terrorists were under the command of
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, known also as Khalid Abu al-Abbas. but the
French Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls disputed the presence of a French national among the attackers. Initially, Abdelmalek Sellal stated there was at least one Canadian dead among the hostage-takers, but did not identify him. He later identified the Canadian man only as "Chedad", and that "Chedad" had co-ordinated and headed the attack; survivors had described a young hostage-taker with fair skin, blond hair, and blue or green eyes, who spoke in perfect North American English. This led to intense media speculation in Canada, and the story quickly became a daily headline for several weeks. The two Canadian attackers' remains were later identified as those of as Ali Medlej, 24, and Xris Katsiroubas, 22, two friends, both of London, Ontario. The two along with a third friend, 24-year-old Aaron Yoon, also from London, traveled to Mauritania in 2011 to study Islam and the Arabic language. All three were born in Canada, and attended London South Collegiate Institute. Medlej was raised Muslim; Katsiroubas, a Greek-Canadian, and Yoon, a Korean-Canadian, converted to Islam from Greek Orthodox and Catholic, respectively, during their high school years. At some point in late 2011, Yoon became separated from Medlej and Katsiroubas. In December 2011, in Mauritania, Yoon was arrested, charged, and convicted of terrorism, and sentenced to 18 months in prison, more than a year before Medlej and Katsiroubas staged the attack in Algeria. Yoon has maintained his innocence. In 2012, he was visited by an official from Amnesty International, but requested that the circumstances of his arrest and detention remain confidential. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Yoon was also visited by a Canadian government official in 2012. Yoon's family was unaware of his detention until more than a month after the hostage crisis, believing he was still studying Islam and the Arabic language. Yoon was briefly interviewed by the CBC in early 2013, via cellphone, while a group of inmates surrounded him to protect him from the guards and other inmates. CBC News reported 9 May 2013 that at least one among Medlej and Katsiroubas Canadian militants worked at the plant.[26] Yoon was released from prison in July 2013, and subsequently arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport; the Canadian authorities are not expected to lay any charges against him. Residents of London, both known and unknown to the trio, have expressed shock and disbelief at their deaths and the circumstances of their deaths. Medlej was variously described by high school friends as a good student who "got high marks but would hide it from his peers", played high school football, was loud, funny, a "wannabe thug", "kind of an ass sometimes, depending who he was with", a "good guy who stood up for a friend (who was being picked on)", and would on occasion slam his fist against a locker in frustration. Friends said Medlej was not very serious about his Muslim faith, saying that he would drink alcohol and smoke. Katsiroubas was described by friends as being seriously invested in his faith, devoutly attending prayers at the mosque; Yoon has been described as private on the subject of his conversion to Islam, and uninvested in his schoolwork, until his conversion to Islam apparently provoked "academic curiosity" within him. On 19 January, Algerian state media announced that 11 of the hostage-takers were killed after a military offensive which ended the siege. Seven hostages were executed by the perpetrators during the offensive. Algeria's Prime Minister
Abdelmalek Sellal said on 21 January that 29 of the attackers had been killed and 3 captured alive. Libyan hardline Islamist sources declared that the kidnappers had logistical support from Islamists in Libya, such as aiding the media to contact the terrorists, while local Algerian outlets like Numidia News or TSA said that the attackers wore Libyan uniforms, had Libyan weapons and vehicles. ==Demands==