Post date: Jan 17, 2013 11:4:18 PM
British Prime Minister David Cameron warns people to prepare for "bad news" after Algerian forces launched an operation to free foreign hostages at a remote desert gas plant on Thursday.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JANUARY 17, 2013) (UK POOL) - British Prime Minister David Cameron postponed on Thursday (January 17) a much-anticipated speech on Britain's future role in the European Union because of the hostage crisis at an Algerian gas plant where Britons are believed to be among those held.
A sombre-looking Cameron warned people to expect "bad news" after Algerian forces launched an operation to free the hostages from Islamist militants, saying one Briton had already been killed when the site was stormed on Wednesday."The Algerian armed forces have now attacked this compound. It is a very dangerous, very uncertain, very fluid situation. I think we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility of bad news ahead," he said.
An Algerian security source said that at least 11 Islamist militants including their leader were killed on Thursday when Algerian forces stormed a desert gas plant to rescue the hostages.
He said two Algerians, including the group's leader Tahar Ben Cheneb, a prominent commander in the region, were among the dead, along with three Egyptians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, a Malian and a French citizen. It was not clear whether further bodies of militants might be found now the operation is over.
He also said 30 hostages were killed, of whom the nationalities of 15 had been established. Of these, eight were Algerian and seven were foreigners, including two British, two Japanese and a French national.
The gravity of the situation prompted Cameron to call off what had been dubbed a career-defining speech on Europe which he had been due to make on Friday inAmsterdam. The address had been long awaited by Britons and lawmakers at home, as well as by officials and politicians across Europe.
"Due to events in Algeria, Prime Minister David Cameron's speech in the Netherlandstomorrow has been postponed," his office said in a statement. The new date and the venue for the speech would be announced in due course, it added.
A spokesman for Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had been due to meet Cameron in The Hague before his cancelled speech, said he "fully understood" the decision, according to local news agency ANP.