Relief for In Amenas residents as hostage crisis ends

IN AMENAS, Algeria (AFP) - "Phew, it's over," said a resident of In Amenas, the town in the Algerian Sahara closest to the sprawling gas complex where a four-day hostage crisis ended in bloodshed on Saturday.

Brahim, in his 50s, expressed his condolences for the foreign and Algerian hostages who were killed, but was not surprised by the Algerian army's ruthless final assault on Saturday morning.

"It was predictable that it would end like that," he said, standing in front of the town's hospital that was taken over by the authorities to treat victims of the violence that began with a dawn attack by Islamist gunmen on Wednesday.

"I knew people who worked there, and I am trying to find out if they are among the people who were brought here," he added.

In the last moments of the siege, 11 heavily armed jihadists killed the seven remaining foreign hostages before being gunned down by Algerian special forces at the gas plant, 40 kilometres from In Amenas.

Coffins had been seen arriving at the hospital in the morning.

Late in the afternoon, British diplomats travelling in 4X4 vehicles entered the building followed by journalists working for state television, with the few others there, including an AFP correspondent, denied access.

Apart from some 30 people outside the hospital, there was no one to be seen in this industrial town which has been eerily quiet since Wednesday.

"The Touareg stayed hidden at home in a state of shock," said Brahim Zaghdaoui, who came to In Amenas seven years ago from the neighbouring town of Jijel.

"We had the good life here. Today I no longer feel at ease," added Zaghdaoui, one of the few people to have returned to the town, 1,300 kilometres southeast of Algiers, that was abandoned by its residents earlier this week.

On Saturday, during Algeria's weekend, there were no women walking the streets of the town, with its population of 3,000 locals, plus outsiders.

Ali Smail, who works in the town and was denied a request for leave during the hostage drama, was nervous.

"I am afraid that something will happen... I want to leave," he said.

"We went from a peaceful situation to a terror situation," said Fouad, a resident of In Amenas.

"The plant could have exploded and taken out the town," said another, after seeing the constant movement of army helicopters.

Yuan Haiping, an employee with the Chinese firm Great Wall Drilling, said he had been stuck inside the town's only hotel since Wednesday.

"I was afraid, especially at night. I was woken by the smallest noises."

The hostage-taking was the largest since the 2008 Mumbai attack, involving more than 100 foreigners, some 30 of whom still appear to be unaccounted for, and with the Algerian government saying 21 hostages had been killed.

Ahmed, a trader, said he was still haunted by the chaos that engulfed Algeria in the 1990s and left up to 200,000 of its citizens dead.

"Yesterday, several relatives were afraid to go to pray because they feared a bomb attack," he said.

Abdelkader, an oil worker, said people were now talking about "the before and after" of the In Amenas hostage-taking.

"Without this authorisation of overflights by French fighter planes heading to Mali, none of this would have happened," he said.