SLATE AFRIQUE
ALGIERS - Amidst conflicting reports of the fate of perhaps hundreds of hostages from a showdown between an Islamist terror group and Algerian security forces, the Algerian government has released the first video of some of those freed at the gas treatment facility in the remote southern part of the country.
There are reports of perhaps dozens of casualties amongst an estimated 41 Western employees and several hundred Algerian workers taken captive by a radical group at the gas facility jointly run by foreign energy companies.
The state-run television report shows both Algerians and Westerners freed. They are asked repeatedly to comment on the work of the Algerian security operation, as questions have arisen about the government's decision to launch a blitz so soon after the Wednesday attack. The English speakers begin at about the 6:30 mark of the video:
