CAIRO — One American was dead and dozens of foreign hostages were unaccounted for Friday after a military raid in the Sahara desert to retake a natural gas compound that was stormed this week by Islamist militants.
The Algerian government said 573 Algerians and nearly 100 of an estimated 132 foreign hostages had been freed or had escaped. Much about the military operation, however, remained unclear, leaving officials in other countries frustrated by contradictory versions of what happened at the remote gas field near the Algerian-Libyan border.
Reports suggested that heavily armed militants had scattered throughout the complex and that an unknown number of hostages were still hiding or possibly dead. The state-run news agency, which had announced the night before that the ordeal was over, said the military was still seeking a "peaceful end."
Late Friday, there were reports that the militants had offered to trade two captive American workers for two extremist figures jailed in the United States, including Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of plotting to bomb landmarks in New York.
Asked about the offer, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, "The United States does not negotiate with terrorists." She confirmed that some Americans were still being held hostage in Algeria.
Nuland refused to comment on casualties, but a U.S. official said authorities had recovered the remains of one American, Frederick Buttaccio of Texas. Officials said his family had been notified.
The chaos left the United States, Britain and other nations worrying about their citizens and questioning why they hadn't been consulted about a rushed military strike that ignited intense firefights and sent captives taking cover or fleeing into the desert.
"The action of Algerian forces was regrettable," said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed dismay about not being informed before the launch of the operation against the 20 to 60 militants who seized the gas complex, ostensibly in retaliation for French airstrikes on Islamist rebels in neighboring Mali.
In a statement to the House of Commons, Cameron said, "I was told by the Algerian prime minister while it was taking place. He said that the terrorists had tried to flee, that they judged there to be an immediate threat to the lives of the hostages and had felt obliged to respond."
A statement from the White House said President Obama was "receiving regular updates from his national security team on the ongoing situation in Algeria."
The Algerian government, which fought Islamist militants in a civil war that killed more than 100,000 people in the 1990s, sought to justify its raid on the complex at In Amenas, which is operated by BP; Statoil, a Norwegian firm; and Sonatrach, the Algerian national oil company.
"Those who think we will negotiate with terrorists are delusional," Mohamed Said Belaid, Algeria's communications minister, told state media. "Those who think we will surrender to their blackmail are delusional."
State news media reported that 18 extremists had been killed. Two Filipino and two British hostages reportedly died, though unconfirmed reports put the number of foreigner deaths as high as 35. A Mauritanian news organization said dozens of foreigners were killed when military helicopters strafed two vehicles attempting to flee the compound.
As first-person accounts began trickling out from survivors, at least one offered a similar description of Algerian air attacks on vehicles that contained hostages.
The drama began Wednesday when extremists ambushed a convoy of foreign workers headed for a nearby airport. They seized the vehicles and their occupants and drove to the complex.
Stephen McFaul, an Irishman who escaped the complex during the military assault, told his family that hostages had their mouths taped shut and explosives hung around their necks, Reuters news agency reported. McFaul said he narrowly escaped being killed — not by the militants, but by the Algerian military.
"They 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," said Brian McFaul, recounting what his brother's wife, Angela, had told him. "The truck my brother was in crashed, and at that stage Stephen was able to make a break for his freedom. He presumed everyone else in the other trucks was killed."
Alexandre Berceaux, a French worker at the plant, told Europe 1 radio that he hid under a bed in his living quarters for 40 hours. His Algerian co-workers brought him food and water and communicated by password for him to open the door.
"I saw some dead. They said there were many dead," he said. "I don't know how many. There were terrorists who were dead along with foreigners and locals.... Nobody was expecting this. The site was protected; there were military forces there."
A plane sent to the area by the U.S. military and aircraft from BP were evacuating workers and freed hostages to Europe. At least seven Americans were believed to have been held captive, along with fewer than 30 Britons and citizens from Norway, Japan and other countries.
An Al Qaeda-linked group, the Signed-in-Blood Battalion, claimed responsibility for the attack. Its leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a smuggler known for masterminding kidnappings, supports militants in Mali who hope to build an Islamist state. France last week bombed militants' positions there and has sent in troops in an effort to stop their advances.
However, an Obama administration official, insisting on anonymity because he was speaking about sensitive internal discussions, said U.S. authorities did not believe the gas field attack was in response to the French action in Mali.
"This was planned far in advance," he said. "We believe this was unrelated, and they have seized on the French action to bring attention to it."
The overrunning of the compound raised questions about Algeria's ability to secure its rich oil and gas fields. The bloodshed also suggested that Islamic extremists were becoming increasingly emboldened across the deserts stretching from Mali across North Africa. News reports suggested that some of the militants killed by Algerian forces were from Libya and Egypt.
On Friday, as militants threatened new attacks on Algeria's oil and gas installations, international leaders remained frustrated by three days of fluid and confusing events at the compound at In Amenas.
"Parts of the plant are under Algerian authorities' control, and other parts are not. This information is changing by the hour," Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told the BBC.
jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com
Times staff writers Henry Chu in London, Ken Dilanian and Paul Richter in Washington and special correspondent Kim Willsher in Paris contributed to this report.
