About 650 hostages have been freed from militants at a gas facility in Algeria, state media report, but about 60 foreigners are still unaccounted for.
State-run APS news agency said those freed at the In Amenas installation included 573 Algerians and more than half of 132 foreign workers.
The militants remained holed up at the site, APS said. “Significantly” fewer than 30 Britons are thought to be held.
At least four foreign workers died when troops moved in on Thursday.
A “comprehensive total” of the hostages still held was not available and some of them had taken refuge at various points around the site, a security source told APS.
The source said that special forces were seeking a “peaceful end” to the crisis.
The installation had been put out of action to avoid the risk of an explosion, the agency reported.
Meanwhile, BP said on Friday that hundreds of workers from international oil companies had been evacuated from Algeria on Thursday and that many more would follow.
On Friday morning, a spokesman for the group thought to be behind the attack told the Mauritanian ANI agency that it would carry out further operations.
He warned Algerians to “stay away from the installations of foreign companies as we will strike where it is least expected”.
Algeria has yet to give precise casualty figures from Thursday’s rescue attempt.
The state-run APS news agency cited local officials as saying two Britons and two Filipinos were killed. Two others, a Briton and an Algerian, died on Wednesday when the militants ambushed a bus that was taking foreign workers at the facility to the local airport.
A spokesman for the militants told the ANI agency that 35 hostages and 15 militants had been killed in Thursday’s operation. One Algerian official said the figures were “exaggerated”.
The In Amenas gas field is operated by the Algerian state oil company, Sonatrach, along with the British oil company BP and Norway’s Statoil.
It is situated at Tigantourine, about 40km (25 miles) south-west of the town of In Amenas and 1,300km (800 miles) south-east of Algiers.
‘Deep regret’
On Friday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament that he had been told by his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmalek Sellal, that troops were “still pursuing terrorists and possibly some of the hostages”.
Mr Cameron also revealed that on Thursday night, the number of British citizens at risk had been fewer than 30, but that it had now been “quite significantly reduced”.
Later, a British plane carrying an emergency deployment team arrived at an airstrip at Hassi Messaoud, about 280 miles (450km) from the BP plant.
It is understood this was the closest the Algerian authorities would allow the plane to land.
Japanese officials were meanwhile quoted as saying that at least 14 Japanese nationals were still missing. At least three managed to escape.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, expressed “deep regret” at the actions of the Algerian security forces and its foreign ministry summoned the Algerian ambassador.
Despite requests for communication and pleas to consider the hostages’ safety, the UK, Japan and US said they had not been told in advance about the military assault.
Norway said eight of its nationals were currently unaccounted for. One is being treated at a hospital in In Amenas, while four escaped unharmed.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said two French workers were safe. It was unclear if another two were involved, he added.
One Irish citizen, an Austrian and five Americans have been freed, according to officials.
French national Alexandre Berceaux, who worked for CIS Catering, told French media he had hidden under the bed in his room for 40 hours before being rescued.
“When the soldiers came to get me, I did not even know it was over. They were with colleagues, otherwise I would never have opened the door,” he said.
A statement purporting to come from the kidnappers says the raid was carried out in retaliation for the French intervention against Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), in neighbouring Mali.
But BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera says the kidnapping was a complex operation which is unlikely to have been planned and carried out since the surprising French intervention in Mali last Friday.
Algerian officials said the militants were operating under orders from Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who was a senior AQIM commander until late last year.
Source: The Daily Star
