Americans seized in attack on Algeria gas field

The State department confirms that Americans are among those being held hostage at a BP gas field in Algeria. Cnbc's Michelle Caruso Cabrerra has the details.

A number of Americans are among 41?hostages seized by militants at a gas field in eastern Algeria, the U.S. State Department confirmed Wednesday, while declining to give the names, number or other details about those U.S. nationals "in order to protect their safety."

The hostage situation, described as a "terrorist attack" by department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland,?was unfolding at a gas operation in Amenas ? a joint venture including oil giant BP, Norwegian oil firm Statoil and Algerian state company Sonatrach.?

"The majority of those held are Algerian nationals," a senior U.S. official said earlier. Reuters also said that the number of U.S. citizens involved was 7, but Nuland declined to confirm the details.

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BP said in a statement that the site was "attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people."

The company also said that Algerian authorities were "engaged with the incident," and BP had activated its emergency response system.

The al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb group claimed it had captured the workers in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali, Reuters reported, citing two Mauritania-based news agencies.

French President Francois Hollande said he was in contact with the government of Algeria, Reuters reported.

"I am in permanent contact with the Algerian authorities who are doing, and will do, their duty," Hollande said.?"We are also in contact with the heads of state of the countries concerned.''

The nationalities of the kidnapped oil workers were unclear, but Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that "British nationals are caught up in this incident," the statement said.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference that 13 Norwegian citizens were among the hostages.

And a spokesman for the Japanese government said it had set up a task force to investigate reports that several Japanese citizens had been abducted, and officials in Ireland issued a statement about the reported kidnapping of an Irish citizen.

"The government stands ready to use all the resources available to us to ensure that our citizen is released as soon as possible," Eamon Gilmore, Ireland?s minister for foreign affairs and trade, said in the statement. "I would ask that the family be allowed privacy at this difficult time."

Kidnappers' motives 'unknown'

One of the kidnappers, reportedly contacted by Mauritania's news agency ANI, warned that any attempt to free the hostages would come to a "tragic end" Reuters reported. The militants had placed mines around the site of the kidnapping, according to that unconfirmed report.

The raid happened after Islamists promised to retaliate for France?s decision to send troops to Mali, which has been fighting al-Qaida-linked militants who have taken over much of the north of the country.

Algeria has allowed France to use its air space during the Mali operation, Reuters said, although officials have yet to make a link between Wednesday's attack and the conflict in Algeria's southern neighbor.

Algeria and neighboring Mali are former colonies of France.

The gas field is around 825 miles from the capital, Algiers, in the east of the country.

Statoil, a minority shareholder in the venture, said it was notified of the incident Wednesday morning but could not say if any of its fewer than 20 employees were affected, Reuters reported.

A reporter for Japan's NHK television managed to call a Japanese worker in Algeria, Reuters reported. The worker said he got a phone call from a colleague at the gas field.

"It was around 6 a.m. this morning. He said that he had been hearing gunshots for about 20 minutes," the worker said. "I wasn't able to get through to him since."

Oil major BP said on Wednesday it believed the Amenas operation had been shut down after the attack, Reuters reported. The company said the field had been producing about 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day ? more than 10 percent of the country's overall gas output.

Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube, Ian Johnston,?Arata Yamamoto and Alastair Jamieson of NBC News, and Reuters,?contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/16/16544337-americans-seized-in-terrorist-incident-at-algeria-gas-plant?lite

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