Canadian 'co-ordinated' terrorist attack, says Algerian PM

Riad, an Algerian employee of Japan's JGC engineering firm, described how three of his Japanese colleagues were executed after the Islamists attacked the bus that was taking them to the airport.

“We were all terrified when we heard bursts of gunfire at 5.30am (04.30 GMT) on Wednesday, after we realised that they had just killed our Japanese colleagues who tried to flee,” he said.

The gunmen then took the passengers to the plant's residential compound, where they had seized hundreds of foreign and Algerian hostages.

“A terrorist shouted 'open the door!' with a strong North American accent, and opened fire. Two other Japanese died then and we found four other Japanese bodies” in the compound, said Riad, choking with emotion.

Here's an updated summary of today's key events:

Algeria

 Thirty-seven foreign workers were killed during the four-day siege of the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria, the Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, said. Five foreigners were still missing following the siege, the PM said. David Cameron, the British prime minister, said there were 800 employees on the site when it was attacked, 135 of them foreigners. He said over 40 were taken hostage and at least 12 killed, with a further 20 feared dead – figures lower than Sellal's. Three Britons have been confirmed dead and three more, along with one Colombian-born British resident, are also thought to have been killed, Cameron said. The US said three Americans had died. Japan’s prime minister confirmed that seven Japanese people had been killed in the raid.

Some 29 Islamist militants were killed in the raid, and the attack was co-ordinated by a Canadian, Sellal said. Three terrorists had been captured, he said. The militants wanted to blow up the gas facility, Sellal said, and planned the attack two months ago in Mali. Islamist militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimed responsibility on behalf of al-Qaida for the attack on the gas facility on Wednesday – which led to a bloody assault the next day by the Algerian armed forces that lasted until Saturday – in a video, and said about 40 terrorists took part in the attack. The Canadian foreign affairs minister, John Baird, said his country could not confirm that a Canadian was involved but was working to verify this.

Belmokhtar's group, the Mulathameen Brigade ("the Masked Ones") – of which the Signatories in Blood group that carried out the Algerian kidnapping seems to have been a sub-group – put out a statement through the ANI news agency in Mauritania threatening to carry out more attacks directed at states involved in battling the Islamists in Mali if they did not stop their military involvement there. In the statement, the group gave their account of the siege, saying the operation had been planned a long time ago, that they had tried to negotiate with an oil company, "westerners and Algerians", and "senior intelligence officials" but the Algerians chose instead to attack. Britain refused to go into details about claims made during the siege by the hostage-takers' leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, that he had been in contact with British officials, saying: "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

  Cameron said that British intelligence and counter-terrorist assets would help find and dismantle the network that launched the attack on In Amenas. He added that the UK was “not seeking a combat role” in Mali, although it would continue to support the French military intervention there. He also rowed back somewhat from last week's criticisms of Algeria's handling of the raid (he had said he was disappointed not to have been told about the raid in advance), saying MPs would understand the challenges the Algerians faced, and that the siege would have been a demanding task for any country. The president of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has reportedly ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack.

Syria

Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Istanbul have postponed forming a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition said on Monday, in a setback for efforts to fill a power vacuum in the war-torn country.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, a group affiliated to the SNC, said 50 people had been killed so far today, 1171 of them in Damascus and its suburbs, as well as eight in Hama, in the north-west.  Videos posted by opposition groups purported to show explosions, wounded people and damage to buildings in Hama yesterday.

Cameron said that he was "extremely concerned" about the fact that al-Qaida jihadists were among the groups making up the Syrian opposition, but it was wrong to characterise all the opposition groups in that way.

Israel

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has been out on the stump today trying to rally his vote in the run-up to tomorrow’s general election, which he is expected to win.

Back in the Commons, David Cameron says he does not have the number of hostage-takers who have been captured by the Algerians and are in custody.

He sees he does not yet have any information showing that any British nationals were among the terrorists, but he expects to see a breakdown of numbers of foreign terrorists soon.

CTV News reports that John Baird, the Canadian foreign affairs minister, has issued a statement on the Algerian PM's revelation that a Canadian co-ordinated the terrorist attack, Joe Lord-Jones writes.

Baird said:

"We can't confirm the accuracy of these reports. But what we are doing, our embassy in Algiers and our team in Ottawa are working to try to verify these information and get the names of these alleged Canadians but we can't report anything official at this time.

In the House of Commons, Labour MP Gisela Stuart just asked David Cameron whether he was confident the UK was not supporting Syrian al-Qaida-linked jihadists similar to those we were opposing in Algeria and Mali. Cameron said:

There are many organisations in the Syrian opposition who want what I think most people in this house would want, which is for the Syrian people to be free of this brutal dictatorship, to be free of the murder and the mayhem that they face with 60,000 dead so far.

But of course there are elements in the Syrian opposition who do have extremist views and extremist ways and we have to be extremely concerned about that. But I think to characterise all the Syrian opposition in that way, or a majority of the Syrian opposition in that way, wouldn't be right.

An Obama administration official has said three Americans died in the In Amenas attack. Previously only one was confirmed to have died. Seven Americans survived. The dead were named as Frederick Buttaccio, Victor Lynn Lovelady and Gordon Lee Rowan. AP reports:

Militants who attacked the In Amenas gas field in the Sahara had offered to release the pair in exchange for the freedom of two prominent terror suspects jailed in the United States: Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind sheik convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks and considered the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist convicted of shooting at two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Obama administration rejected the offer.

Reuters has named the Canadian that the Algerian prime minister says was co-ordinating the In Amenas attack as "Chedad".

Here is a summary of today's key events so far:

Algeria

 Thirty-seven foreign workers were killed during the four-day siege of the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria, the Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, said. Five foreigners were still missing following the siege, the PM said. David Cameron, the British prime minister, said there were 800 employees on the site when it was attacked, 135 of them foreigners. He said over 40 were taken hostage and at least 12 killed, with a further 20 feared dead – figures lower than Sellal's. Three Britons have been confirmed dead and three more, along with one Colombian-born British resident, are also thought to have been killed, Cameron said. Japan’s prime minister confirmed that seven Japanese people had been killed in the raid.

Some 29 Islamist militants were killed in the raid, and the attack was co-ordinated by a Canadian, Sellal said. Three terrorists had been captured, he said. The militants wanted to blow up the gas facility, Sellal said, and planned the attack two months ago in Mali. Islamist militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimed responsibility on behalf of al-Qaida for the attack on the gas facility on Wednesday – which led to a bloody assault the next day by the Algerian armed forces that lasted until Saturday – in a video, and said about 40 terrorists took part in the attack.

Belmokhtar's group, the Mulathameen Brigade ("the Masked Ones") – of which the Signatories in Blood group that carried out the Algerian kidnapping seems to have been a sub-group – put out a statement through the ANI news agency in Mauritania threatening to carry out more attacks directed at states involved in battling the Islamists in Mali if they did not stop their military involvement there. In the statement, the group gave their account of the siege, saying the operation had been planned a long time ago, that they had tried to negotiate with an oil company, "westerners and Algerians", and "senior intelligence officials" but the Algerians chose instead to attack. Britain refused to go into details about claims made during the siege by the hostage-takers' leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, that he had been in contact with British officials, saying: "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

  Cameron said that British intelligence and counter-terrorist assets would help find and dismantle the network that launched the attack on In Amenas. He added that the UK was “not seeking a combat role” in Mali, although it would continue to support the French military intervention there. He also rowed back somewhat from last week's criticisms of Algeria's handling of the raid (he had said he was disappointed not to have been told about the raid in advance), saying MPs would understand the challenges the Algerians faced, and that the siege would have been a demanding task for any country. The president of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has reportedly ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack.

Syria

Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Istanbul have postponed forming a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition said on Monday, in a setback for efforts to fill a power vacuum in the war-torn country.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, a group affiliated to the SNC, said 50 people had been killed so far today, 1171 of them in Damascus and its suburbs, as well as eight in Hama, in the north-west.  Videos posted by opposition groups purported to show explosions, wounded people and damage to buildings in Hama yesterday.

Israel

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has been out on the stump today trying to rally his vote in the run-up to tomorrow’s general election, which he is expected to win.

Cameron agrees that the Arab Spring will be of long-term benefit to the region, despite some turmoil it is calling.

Cameron says there is genuine cross-party agreement on these issues.

The PM tells him all the major companies have been contacted across the region and they have put in place heightened security and better contact arrangements with the government.

On Mali "we are not seeking a combat role", but the UK is supporting the French, he says. He'll discuss that again at the national security council tomorrow and consider lending them more equipment.

The answer is to train up African soldiers and let them take the lead, he says. Ecowas (the Economic Community Of West African States) should take the lead, with the backing of the pre-Christmas UN resolution.

Miliband adds that the Arab Spring demonstrated the desire of people in the region to improve their lives peacefully. We should support them, the Labour leader says.

Ed Miliband responds. The opposition Labour leader says the whole country has been shocked by the horrific details from Algeria. "This was premediated cold-blooded murder of the most brutal kind," he says.

He condemns those who planned and carried out this attack. It is they who bear full responsibility, he says.

He will give the government full support on these issues. The task is to understand the nature of the new threat, Miliband says.

At the same time for the international community to apply the lessons of the past.

The Algerian government was faced with extremely difficult judgments to make, Miliband says.

Cameron said a few minutes ago that he wanted to recognise all the Algerians had done. MPs would understand the challenges they faced, he said. It would have been a demanding task for any country.

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A tough security response must be combined with a political response, he says.

We must support effective and accountable government, Cameron says.

We are in the midst of a generational struggle against an ideology that is an extreme distortion of Islam, the PM says.

This is not a clash of civilisations, he says.

The building blocks of democracy are a big part of the solution, but they all take a long time to put in place, Cameron says.

But that's the best way to defeat terrorism, and, he says, he will use his chairmanship of the G8 to push this agenda.

In Mali we will work with the Malians and international allies and support the French, Cameron says.

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It requires a strong security response, he says.

Our role is to support the governments of the region to combat this menace, Cameron says. British intelligence and counter-terrorist assets will help find and dismantle the network that launched this attack on In Amenas.

Cameron says the responsibility for these deaths lie squarely with the terrorists.

The incident underlines the threat terrorists pose to the region and our country too.

He says a huge amount has been done to reduce the threat from the Middle East, but al-Qaida franchises have grown in Yemen, Somalia and north Africa.

The UK has increased its investment in fragile and broken states, he says.

As this problem escalates the region becomes a magnet for foreign jihadists, he says. It demands an international response.

Cameron says the Algerian PM told him on Saturday afternoon that the Algerian military had completed their offensive.

Since then the Algerian military has been clearing the site of booby traps. They are still doing that.

He says in total there were 800 employees on the site at the time of the attack, 135 of them foreigners.

Over 40 were taken hostage, he says; at least 12 of them were killed, with at least a further 20 unaccounted for and feared dead.

The number of terrorists was over 30, he says. Most were killed, but a small number are in Algerian custody.

British prime minister David Cameron has started making a statement on the Algerian hostage crisis to the House of Commons.

Cameron confirms that three British nationals are dead, and a further three are believed to be dead, as is a Colombian national resident in Britain.

Joe Lord-Jones has been looking into the Canadian reaction to the news that a Canadian or Canadians may have been involved in this week’s Algerian terrorist attack. The Algerian prime minister has said a Canadian “co-ordinated” the raid.

On the Globe and Mail website Dick Garneau commented:

Canada should adopt a law that says any Canadian who joins a war, uprising, resistance or conflict in foreign countries, not authorized by Canada should lose their Canadian Citizenship.

"Wisdom", writing on the CBC website, said:

Find out who their associates are and dig hard and fast. Find out if they have been influenced by a religious leader or family member(s) living in Canada and go after them hard and fast. Deport where there is adequate proof and publicize it. Zero tolerance.

The Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, also said the jihadists had planned the attack two months ago in neighbouring Mali.

Initially the raiders had tried to hijack a bus carrying foreign workers to a nearby airport and take them hostage.

"They started firing at the bus and received a severe response from the soldiers guarding the bus," Sellal said. "They failed to achieve their objective, which was to kidnap foreign workers from the bus."

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Religious and ultra-orthodox Jews and inhabitants of West Bank settlements are expected to have disproportionately high representation in the new Israeli parliament, to be elected on Tuesday, writes Harriet Sherwood.

More than a third of members of the 19th Knesset are expected to be entering parliament for the first time, a much higher turnover of political representatives than in previous elections.

A Canadian co-ordinated the Islamist attack on an Algerian gas plant in the Sahara desert, Algerian PM Abdelmalek Sellal has said.

"A Canadian was among the militants. He was co-ordinating the attack," Sellal told a news conference.

Earlier an Algerian security source told Reuters that documents found on the bodies of two militants had identified them as Canadians.

Japan's prime minister has confirmed that seven Japanese citizens have been killed in the hostage crisis. Shinzo Abe said three others were unaccounted for. The victims worked for a Japanese engineering company, JGC Corp.

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A Canadian was co-ordinating the gas facility attack, the Algerian prime minister has said, according to Reuters.

Here is some of what the Algerian prime minister said:

So far most of the hostages have been liberated. There remains five foreigners still and we don't know where they are. They could be still hiding. They could have gone somewhere else. Five foreigners. Or they could have been killed, and if that's the case may they rest in peace.

The number of fatalities is 37 victims, foreign ex-pats, may they rest in peace. One Algerian. These 37 foreign hostages emanate from eight countries and nationalities. Among the 37 victims seven so far have not been identified up to now. Work is still under way to identify them.

Faced with this cowardly action please allow me on behalf of the president of the republic, on behalf of the Algerian people and the Algerian government, to pray [for] the souls of those victims.

Five foreign workers are still missing following the siege, Sellal said.

He said 29 militants had been killed and three were captured alive.

Abdelmalek Sellal, the Algerian prime minister, has been speaking about this week's hostage crisis. He said 37 foreigners had been killed and 29 fighters, with three captured alive, and that the terrorists intended to blow up the gas facility, which would have affected a radius of 5km. More details soon ...

Canada's foreign affairs department is seeking more details from Algerian authorities regarding reports one or more Canadians were among the hostage-takers in Algeria.

The foreign affairs department condemned the kidnapping as "deplorable and cowardly act" and said:

We support the government of Algeria in its ongoing struggle against terrorist forces, and we will continue to work with the Algerians and other north African countries to stop the forces of extremism.

The Foreign Office has released a statement from Lorraine Barlow, the wife of Garry Barlow, who was killed in last week's siege in Algeria:

Garry was a loving, devoted family man. He loved life and lived it to the full. He was very much loved by myself, his sons, mother and sister and the rest of his family and friends and will be greatly missed. He was very proud of his family, as they were of him. We are totally devastated by the news of his death and would ask that the family be left in peace to grieve.

Meanwhile Bob Whiteside told the BBC that his family only learned of his brother Kenny Whiteside's death in the raid from Facebook. He said:

We actually had to find out for ourselves. We were not given any official information. It was on Facebook of all things that we actually found out of Kenny's demise. My daughter found a message from an Algerian co-worker.

But he said he held no "grudges" against the Algerians for their handling of the situation:

That's their system, and they weren't bothered about the hostages as such. They just wanted to get the plant clear of all the terrorists. That was their main objective as far as I could see.

Here is a summary of today's key events so far:

Algeria

The death toll of hostages following the end of the four-day siege of the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria now stands at 58. At least nine Japanese people were today reported to have been killed, while yesterday Algerian troops reportedly found the bodies of 25 more hostages. A Romanian hostage who escaped died in hospital today. Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners are thought to have escaped. Three Britons have been confirmed dead and three more, along with one Colombian-born British resident, are also thought to have been killed.

Some 32 Islamist militants are reported to have been killed in the raid. Six have been captured and Algerian troops are still searching for others. Islamist militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimed responsibility on behalf of al-Qaida for the attack on the gas facility on Wednesday – which led to a bloody assault the next day by the Algerian armed forces that lasted until Saturday – in a video, and said about 40 terrorists took part in the attack. Two Canadians were reported to have been found among the dead kidnappers.

Belmokhtar's group, the Mulathameen Brigade ("the Masked Ones") – of which the Signatories in Blood group that carried out the Algerian kidnapping seems to have been a sub-group – put out a statement through the ANI news agency in Mauritania threatening to carry out more attacks directed at states involved in battling the Islamists in Mali if they did not stop their military involvement there. In the statement, the group gave their account of the siege, saying the operation had been planned a long time ago, that they had tried to negotiate with an oil company, "westerners and Algerians", and "senior intelligence officials" but the Algerians chose instead to attack. Britain refused to go into details about claims made during the siege by the hostage-takers' leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, that he had been in contact with British officials, saying: "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

The Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, is expected to give details about the siege at a press conference today. David Cameron, the British prime minister, is to address the Commons on the situation at 3.30pm. Britain stressed its role in north Africa would involve logistical and intelligence support to others rather than boots on the ground. No 10 also rowed back somewhat from last week's criticisms of Algeria's handling of the raid. The president of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has reportedly ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack.

Syria

Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Istanbul have postponed forming a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition said on Monday, in a setback for efforts to fill a power vacuum in the war-torn country.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, a group affiliated to the SNC, said 32 people had been killed so far today, 11 of them in Damascus and its suburbs, as well as six in Hama, in the north-west.  Videos posted by opposition groups purported to show explosions, wounded people and damage to buildings in Hama yesterday.

Israel

Joe Lord-Jones writes: An opposition group calling itself the Hama Revolutionists Council has sent a number of videos, all but one uploaded yesterday, that it says depict the situation in Hama, in the north-west of Syria. The group claims one person was killed in the city yesterday, by sniper fire, and seven people were arrested. Another group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, said two people died there yesterday. These videos and figures cannot be verified because of the difficulties posting western journalists to Syria.

These two videos (here and here) purport to show the aftermath of explosions in Hama.

This video purports to show the aftermath of multiple explosions following artillery and rocket fire in the city.

And this video purports to show an impact crater and destruction to surrounding buildings in the immediate aftermath of an aerial strike.

Another video (warning: graphic footage) purports to show people wounded by shelling receiving treatment at a medical centre in Hama.

This video (uploaded on the 19th but dated yesterday) purports to show rebels from the “Krnaz Martyrs brigade” using light arms and a mounted machine gun to attack a government warplane.

These videos (here and here) purports to show peaceful demonstrations taking place in Hama.

Mona Mahmood writes: The ANI news agency in Mauritania, which was in contact with the hostage-takers throughout the siege, has received a statement about the raid from Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Mulathameen Brigade (“the Masked Ones”) – of which the Signatories in Blood group that carried out the Algerian kidnapping seems to have been a sub-group.

The statement said the group was willing to direct more attacks towards the states taking part in the war in Mali. It said the In Amenas operation had been planned some time ago. The site was chosen after an “intelligence survey”.

The group explained what they said had happened at the gas facility:

A Fidayeen battalion of the “Those Who Signed In Blood” brigade of al-Qaida has conducted a double operation aiming at controlling the gas compound and Al-Hayatt base affiliates to British company BP and to detain some of the western workers in the compound.

They took control of the compound, as was planned, in a daring move and after the Fadayeen had collected a number of the westerners, they released the Muslims who were in the site, despite the Algerian army claiming they had released them.

They contacted the company’s board and asked for negotiations and they demanded the army stay away from the detention site in order to protect the lives of the Muslims and the hostages but the army responded by sniping [at] two of the detained hostages. After that the Algerian helicopters started to strike Al-Hayatt base where the hostages were in an attempt to kill the hostages and put an end to the crisis as soon as possible.

At that time, the fighters decided to move to the factory to avoid the killing of those hostages who were left or the injured Mulsims in the site and to keep the hostages safe from the bombing, in contrast to what the Algerian regime has claimed: that they were moving them to a neighbouring state.

The [Algerian] helicopters shelled the convoy which was moving the hostages to the factory and destroyed it all in a barbaric way and with direct killing.

This indicates the carelessness of the army towards the lives of the hostages, as they claimed, and the Fadayeen group which was in the factory stayed to offer negotiations a new and mentioned its legitimate demands: halting the aggression against the Muslims in Mali and releasing our prisoners held by the Crusaders. But the Algerian army did not respond to these legitimate demands, yet they began to break in to the gas factory, which led to the killing of the hostages.

The group said that the siege had confirmed a number of things to them:

1. The states who are taking part in the Crusader campaign against the Muslims and Islam have only one target, which is to attack the young Islamic project in Mali and in any country where sharia has been implemented, and they did not interfere to protect the isolated Syrian people, who have been killed and displaced for two years now, and this confirmed their new colonial greed.

2. We opened the negotiations with the westerners and Algerians and gave them safety right from the beginning of the operation but one of the senior intelligence officials confirmed to us in a phone call that they will destroy the entire site with the people inside and in accordance to our information this general is the one who supervised the operation.

3. We confirm the falsity of the Algerian security interests and ministry of interior’s allegation regarding controlling the borders. The operation confirmed the fragility of the security system and its lies and confirm that … the military barracks which has more than 250 soliders specialising in the protection of foreigners and oil companies between the the two targeted sites …. was shocked by the Fadayeen’s bravery and their speed in conducting the operation.

4. The Algerian regime’s chicanery and the illusion of the western states that the group who conducted the operation is local and can be controlled easily, though they knew the truth in the first hours and despite the fact that there were only five Algerians in the operation and none of them were locals from the city.

5. The operation was prepared a while ago after an intelligence survey of many sites in different locations and this site was chosen after we found that Algeria was taking part with France in the war against our people in Mali and they have violated its air and land by the French and they closed the borders to siege the Azwadi [northern Malian] Muslim people and this is what pushed us to give the signal for the beginning of the operation in Algeria.

6. We confirm to our Muslim brothers the necessity of staying away from all western compounds and companies for their safety, especially French ones, and this what the Fadayeen brothers have confirmed when they controlled the site, to our Muslim brothers who are working there.

Finally we warn all the states who took part in the Crusader campaign against the Azwad region [northern Mali] that if they do not retreat from their decision there will be more operations.

“The Masked Ones”

The British government held a meeting of its Cobra emergency committee this morning, which focused on establishing what had happened to missing Britons and repatriating the bodies of those who died.

David Cameron’s spokesman also made a statement about the prospect of UK military involvement in north Africa:

Clearly in Mali at the moment there is a military response in terms of French forces supporting the Malian government.

We very much support the French in that but our position about troops not being in a combat role is completely unchanged with regard to Mali.

More widely, as the foreign secretary was saying in the context of Somalia, when it comes to military roles our view is very much that they should be regionally-led.

The spokesman was asked about Cameron’s view of Algeria’s handling of the siege. His comments indicated that No 10 are rowing back somewhat on their criticisms from last week:

We were always very clear that there there were difficult decisions that faced the Algerian authorities. It was a fluid, fast-moving event. We were not going to rush into making judgments.

The prime minister said yesterday that we should be very clear that the responsibility for the loss of life lies with the terrorists.

We recognise what the Algerians have done to co-ordinate with us. He thanked them for that and he also noted the Algerian loss of life and the fact that this was an attack against an Algerian site.

Asked about claims made during the siege by the hostage-takers' leader, Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, that he had been in contact with British officials during the siege, Cameron's spokesman said: "We don't negotiate with terrorists. That has always been and remains our policy. I have seen these reports but I am not going to go into details."

An Algerian newspaper has published more details of how the attack by Islamist militants began.

El Khabar reported that the kidnappers arrived in cars painted in the colours of state energy company Sonatrach, one of the operators of the gas facility, but with Libyan number plates, according to Reuters.

The newspaper also said that the president of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack.

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has been out on the stump today trying to rally his vote in the run-up to tomorrow’s general election. At a campaign appearance in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said:

I have no doubt that many, many people will decide at the last minute to come home to Likud-Yisrael Beitenu. I have a good feeling. And at the last minute, I appeal to each and every citizen going to the ballot box: 'Decide for whom you are going to vote - for a divided and weak Israel or for a united and strong Israel and a large governing party?'

Friday’s polls were the last allowed to be published. They showed Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud-Beiteinu alliance set to be the largest party, although his support has dipped somewhat. He is widely expected to bring ultra-nationalist party Jewish Home into government, something that is thought to mean dire prospects for any hope of a peace settlement with the Palestinians.

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The BBC reports that Downing Street wants to emphasise that there will be no combat role for British troops in north Africa, in order to play down speculation raised by David Cameron's reaction to the Algeria crisis that Britain was about to intervene in a repeat of its involvement in Afghanistan. This morning in the No 10 briefing, referring to Mali, Cameron's spokesman said the British were best able to help by providing logistical and intelligence support.

A relative of a survivor of the Algerian crisis has hit out at the British authorities, BP (which part-operates the In Amenas site) and recruitment company Orion, saying they did not keep family members updated during the crisis. Malcolm McCloud, brother of businessman Lewis Allen McCloud, who is now back safely in Devon, said:

None of these fed any information, despite being told we would be the first to know. The lack of information from all the relevant sources was very poor. We were kept up to date from friends who worked in the oil and gas industry and the news.

On Sunday, AFP asked Canada's foreign ministry to comment on reports that Canadians were among the hostage takers. The foreign ministry said it had no further information. “We remain in contact with the Algerians to obtain more information,” a spokeswoman said.

Here is a round-up of what we know so far about how many people have been killed and are missing following the Algerian hostage siege:

Dead

32 Islamist militants, according to the Algerian government.

58 hostages, including the nine Japanese people reported to have been found today and one Romanian who is reported to have died in hospital. The dead hostages include six from the Philippines, three from Britain, two from Romania, one from the US and one from France.

Missing

Japan: 10 Japanese working at the plant are unaccounted for, according to their employer JGC Corp. It is unclear whether this includes the nine reported dead this morning.

Norway: Five Norwegian employees of Statoil are still missing, the energy company said yesterday.

Britain: Three other Britons still missing and feared dead, the UK government said yesterday. Another British resident, born in Colombia, is also feared dead.

Philippines Four Filipinos are still missing, a government spokesman said.

Malaysia: Two Malaysians are missing, the government says.

US: The number of possible American hostages is still unclear. One Texan is dead, the US has confirmed. The militants at first said they were holding seven American hostages, but there has been no official confirmation if any Americans are unaccounted for.

Reuters has more on the news that Algerian special forces have found the bodies of two Canadians among the dead Islamist fighters found at the gas facility.

A security source told the news agency that documents found on the bodies of two of the militants had identified them as Canadians.

An official Algerian source has said that the militants included Arabs, Africans and those from outside Africa.

Meanwhile Algerian oil minister Youcef Yousfi has visited the In Amenas plant and said physical damage was minor. The facility would start up again in two days, he said.

My colleagues in the graphics department have put together this impressive map of the various difficulties faced by north Africa. Click here for the full version.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Mulathameen Brigade – of which the Signatories in Blood group that carried out the Algerian kidnapping seems to have been a sub-group – has threatened to carry out further attacks unless the west ended its military intervention in Mali, the Site monitoring service reports.

The group, which boasts that it is linked to al-Qaida, said:

We promise all the countries that participated in the Crusader campaign against the Azawad region [northern Mali] that we will carry out more operations if they do not reverse their decision.

It also claimed to have offered to negotiate with the west and Algeria:

We opened the door for negotiations with the westerners and the Algerians, and granted them safety from the beginning of the operation, but one of the senior [Algerian] intelligence officials confirmed to us in a phone call that they will destroy the place with everyone in it.

It is unclear whether this negotiation refers to an apparent offer by the group on Friday to release the American hostages in exchange for the release of Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, who are in jail in America on terrorism charges.

The statement was published on Mauritania's ANI news agency website, which has seemed to be in touch with the terrorists throughout the crisis.

David Cameron's statement to the Commons on the Algeria hostage crisis will be at 3.30pm, Andrew Sparrow reports.

William Hague, the British foreign secretary, told BBC Radio 4 this morning that the west's intervention in Libya had "mitigated" the crisis in Mali. Hague said the spread of weapons and extremism could have been even worse if Muammar Gaddafi's regime had survived for longer. He said:

We were involved, if you recall, in saving lives in Libya. I think, actually, if we had not been doing that, because what we did actually shortened the Libyan conflict, these problems would have been, if anything, even greater.

If the Libyan conflict had gone on for longer, there would have been an even greater flow of weapons and an even greater opportunity for extremists to take hold in Libya.

While the Libyan situation may well have contributed to what has happened in Mali, I think the action that the Western world took in Libya, if anything, mitigated that.

Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Istanbul have postponed forming a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition said today. The SNC is recognised as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people by a number of countries, including the UK, US and France.

Yesterday’s talks were the second attempt by the opposition to form an alternative government as the civil war in the country continues.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, a group affiliated to the SNC, said 132 people had been killed yesterday, including 50 in the capital and its suburbs. Thirteen people have died already today, the group said.

Reuters reports that power struggles within the SNC have hindered its attempts to form a transitional government since it was formed in December. A five-member committee is to put forward proposals for a government within 10 days, it said today. The committee would "consult opposition forces and the Free Syrian Army and friendly states to get their opinion about forming the government and the extent to which they can honour the necessary commitments for its financial and political viability," the coalition said in a statement.

Sources at the negotiations in Istanbul said that Syrian National Coalition president Moaz Alkhatib had flown to Qatar to secure promises of financial aid for a transitional government in rebel-held areas.

Meanwhile the Syrian government said a power cut hit Damascus and its suburbs overnight, blaming the blackout on a rebel attack on the main power line to the capital.

Residents told the Associated Press that power had returned to limited areas this morning.

Two dead Islamist militants found inside the Algerian gas facility were Canadians, an Algerian security source has told Reuters. More details soon ...

Good morning and welcome to today’s live blog on the Middle East and north Africa.

Here are this morning’s headlines:

Algeria

The death toll of hostages following the end of the four-day siege of the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria now stands at 57. At least nine Japanese people were today reported to have been killed, while yesterday Algerian troops reportedly found the bodies of 25 more hostages. Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners are thought to have escaped. Three Britons have been confirmed dead and three more, along with one British resident, are also thought to have been killed.

Some 32 Islamist militants are reported to have been killed in the raid. Six have been captured and Algerian troops are still searching for others. Islamist militant Mokhtar Belmoktar claimed responsibility on behalf of al-Qaida for the attack on the gas facility on Wednesday – which led to a bloody assault the next day by the Algerian armed forces that lasted until Saturday – in a video, and said about 40 terrorists took part in the attack.

The Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, is expected to give details about the siege at a press conference today. David Cameron, the British prime minister, is to address the Commons on the situation this afternoon.

 Spectacular as the hostage crisis has been, it does not mean we have returned to the dark days of the early 2000s, writes al-Qaida expert Jason Burke.

It is because militant attacks have been so infrequent – or at least distant – that this recent episode has had such an impact. Bin Laden is dead, al-Qaida's ability to cause harm greatly reduced, and the local dynamics that now characterise the impossibly fragmented world of contemporary extremism make militant groups resilient but render complex 9/11-type attacks almost impossible to organise. Extremism remains a threat, and an evolving one, but the danger is not "existential".

Syria

Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Istanbul have postponed forming a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition said on Monday, in a setback for efforts to fill a power vacuum in the war-torn country. More on this shortly.

 The British government has been urged to help hundreds of Syrian students in the UK left without money and at risk of deportation amid the crisis in their homeland, which has caused the Syrian embassy in London to grind to a halt and seen sanctions imposed on their country's banks, writes Peter Walker.

Israel

 Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to rebuff international demands to allow a Palestinian state with a border based on the pre-1967 Green Line and its capital in East Jerusalem, as hardline pro-settler parties and factions are expected to make unprecedented gains in Tuesday's election, writes Harriet Sherwood.

 As Obama begins his second term there is little sign of the determination to break the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he took office in 2008, which he then characterised as an open sore afflicting the whole Middle East, writes Chris McGreal. Instead, disillusioned former peace negotiators and Middle East policy officials expect his "dysfunctional" and confrontational relationship with Netanyahu to stagger along even if the Israeli prime minister returns to power after Tuesday's election with a government even further to the right of the present one.

The left in Israel is its own worst enemy, writes Rachel Shabi.

All this and more throughout the day here.