Photo gallery: Algeria hostage crisis ends in turmoil

This undated hand out picture released by Norway's energy group Statoil on January 17, 2013 shows the In Amenas gas field, jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway's Statoil and state-run Algerian energy firm Sonatrach, in eastern Algeria near the Libyan border. A military operation was ongoing Thursday at the Algerian gas plant where Islamist gunmen were holding dozens of Western hostages, the governments of Britain, France, and Norway said on January 17, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP

Map of Algeria locating oil and gas facilities and the installation attacked by Islamist militants on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2013.-- PHOTO: REUTERS

This undated hand out picture released by Norway's energy group Statoil on January 17, 2013 shows a road sign near the In Amenas gas field, jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway's Statoil and state-run Algerian energy firm Sonatrach, in eastern Algeria near the Libyan border. Algerian troops surrounded Islamists holding foreign hostages at the gas field on January 17, a day after a deadly attack the gunmen said was in reprisal for Algeria's cooperation in French operations in Mali. The Islamists told Mauritanian media they were holding 41 Westerners. Their captives included French, British and Japanese citizens, as well as seven Americans, they said, adding that the action was in response to Algeria's opening of its air space to French warplanes involved in an assault on Islamists in neighbouring Mali. -- PHOTO: AFP

This image from video provided by the SITE Intel Group made available on Jan 17, 2013, purports to show militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar. Algerian officials scrambled on Thursday for a way to end an armed standoff deep in the Sahara desert with Islamic militants who have taken dozens of foreigners hostage, turning to tribal Algerian Tuareg leaders for talks and contemplating an international force. The group claiming responsibility - called Katibat Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade - says it has captured 41 foreigners, including seven Americans, in the surprise attack on Wednesday on the Ain Amenas gas plant. -- PHOTO: AP

This Oct 8, 2012, satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the Amenas Gas Field in Algeria, which is jointly operated by BP and Norway's Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrach. Algerian special forces launched a rescue operation on Thursday at the plant in the Sahara Desert and freed foreign hostages held by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, but estimates for the number of dead varied wildly from four to dozens. -- PHOTO: AP

Chief executive of Norway's energy group Statoil, Mr Helge Lund, answers questions about the situation in the company's gas plant in Amenas, in eastern Algeria, during a press conference in Stavanger, on Jan 17, 2013. An attack took place at dawn on Jan 16, when armed Islamists targeted a bus carrying oil workers to the In Amenas airport, the Algerian interior ministry said. Fought off by security escorts, they took hostages at the gas field's residential compound. -- PHOTO: AFP

United States defence secretary Leon Panetta pauses during a news conference in Rome on Jan 16, 2013. Mr Panetta confirmed on Wednesday that American citizens are among the hostages taken by an Al-Qaeda-linked group that seized a gas field in Algeria, calling the action a "terrorist attack". -- PHOTO: AP

Seen through a window bearing a symbol of Norway's coat of arms, staff monitor the evolving hostage situation in Algeria from inside the situation room at the Norwegian Foreign Department in Oslo, Norway, on Jan 17, 2013. Islamist militants held a number of foreigners hostage in the Sahara desert in revenge for Algeria's support of French efforts to remove Islamists from control of neighbouring northern Mali. -- PHOTO: AP

Algerian men look at national newspapers headlining the terrorist attack and kidnapping in Amenas at a news stand in Algiers, on Jan 17, 2013. Algerian forces raided a remote Sahara gas plant on Thursday in an attempt to free dozens of foreign hostages held by militants with ties to Mali’s rebel Islamists, diplomats and an Algerian security official said. Information on the Algerian assault in the remote area was wildly varying - Islamic militants claimed that 35 hostages and 15 militants died in a strafing by Algerian helicopters, while Algeria’s official news service claimed hundreds of local workers and half the foreigners were rescued. -- PHOTO: AP

Statoil's chief executive Helge Lund arrives on Thursday evening at the centre for relatives to the hostages in Algeria, which has been established near the airport in Bergen on Jan 17, 2013. Twenty-five foreign hostages escaped and six were killed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched an operation to free them at a remote desert gas plant, Algerian sources said, as one of the biggest international hostage crises in decades unfolded. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Statoil's chief executive Helge Lund, reacts during a press conference at the centre for relatives to the hostages in Algeria, which has been established near the airport, in Bergen, Norway, on Jan 17, 2013. Algerian forces launched a military assault on Thursday at a natural gas plant in the Sahara Desert, trying to free dozens of foreign hostages held by militants who have ties to Mali's rebel Islamists, diplomats and an Algerian security official said. Yet information on the Algerian operation varied wildly and the conflicting reports that emerged from the remote area were impossible to verify independently. -- PHOTO: AP

Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg checks e-mails on his phone while a press conference by Statoils chief executive Helge Lund is displayed on TV at his residence in Oslo during a crisis meeting regarding the hostage situation in Amenas, Algeria, on Jan 17, 2013. Norway said on Thursday it had no news on nine of its nationals working at a remote gas plant in Algeria where dozens of captives were killed in a military assault on Islamist hostage takers. -- PHOTO: AFP

Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (centre) is surrounded by unidentified aides during a crisis meeting at the prime ministers residence in Oslo on Jan 17, 2013, on the hostage-taking at a Norway's energy group Statoil gas plant in Algeria. Norway said it had no news on nine of its nationals working at a remote gas plant in Algeria where dozens of captives were killed in a military assault on Islamist hostage takers. -- PHOTO: AFP

Mr Takeshi Endo, public relations manager of Japanese plant construction company JGC, reacts as he is surrounded by press at the company's headquarters in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on Jan 18, 2013. Japanese plant builder JGC said on January 18 it had confirmed the safety of three of its Japanese staff in Algeria, while the whereabouts of the other 14 remained unknown. -- PHOTO: AFP