Algeria Hostage Toll Rises With Report Of Japanese Deaths

The hostage death toll from a four-day siege at an Algerian gas plant deep in the Sahara has risen to 60, with at least nine Japanese reported to have killed in the attack.

A veteran Islamist fighter with links to al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the seige and attack on the plant. The Algerian Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, is expected to give details of the number of deaths and injuries at a news conference on Monday.
The incidence is about one of the worst international hostage crises in decades, which has left several American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian and Romanian workers dead or missing.
A security source said on Sunday that Algerian troops had found the bodies of 25 hostages, raising the total number of hostages killed to 48 and others who died to at least 80.
He said six militants were captured alive and that troops were still searching for others.