Video Link: http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/01/18/world/africa/100000002013034/algerias-response-to-a-hostage-crisis.html?ref=africa#100000002013034
A gas-producing complex in Algeria was
taken over by attackers and many people were taken hostage in the
past week. The Algerian military has recently announced that the
complex has been liberated from the attackers. The death toll,
however, has been steadily rising. A senior Algerian official said
that “a good twenty” more bodies were found at the plant on
Sunday. So far their has been confirmed 23 dead hostages, but that
number is expected to continue rising. Over a dozen hostages are
still missing as of Sunday, and many of the bodies have yet to be
identified. The attackers were a multinational group from six
countries that have not yet been given out to the media. They were
believed to have connections to Al Qaeda in Northern Aftrica. So far
there have been 32 identified dead attackers. The total number of
people that were taken hostage is still unknown, but several were
American. The Algerian government has been greatly criticized of late
for one, using very aggressive tactics against the attackers and also
for not consulting many Western leaders before making military action
that involved hostages from their countries.
I am very, very, very glad that this
hostage crisis is ended. Whenever I think of things like this I
wonder how I would feel if it were one of my family members or
friends that was a hostage. I wouldn't want anyone else to have a
feeling like that. I'm relieved that the people are free now, but my
heart also is heavily weighed down by the number of people that
aren't able to go home. Over 20 people are dead, many of them
Americans. What also bothers me is that the Algerian government took
action against the attackers without even consulting the other
countries that were involved. A global threat like this has become
should be dealt with globally and not as single countries.
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