Debate emerges over hostage-takers’ intent

Algerian security forces on Sunday made grisly discoveries of dozens of bodies at a sprawling natural gas facility, a day after a violent showdown put an end to an international hostage crisis.But as Algeria tallied up the losses, a debate was quickly emerging about whether the militant group linked to al-Qaeda that seized the plant had been intent on a massacre or whether it had simply been after money.Security officials told Algerian media Sunday that they had discovered 25 charred bodies after they mounted a final assault at the remote Sahara plant the previous day, apparently leaving the kidnappers and remaining captives dead. Those discoveries, coupled with the death of a Romanian hostage who succumbed to his injuries after escaping, brought the overall death toll to at least 81. Algerian officials had said Saturday that 23 hostages and 32 militants had been killed in the standoff. It was not known Sunday whether the 25 newly discovered bodies were those of hostages or captors.The crisis erupted Wednesday, when militants staged a dawn raid on the desert gas complex. The United States and other Western governments had urged caution and put intense pressure on the Algerians to avoid hostage deaths. Obama administration officials and congressional staff members said Sunday that they received only scant information from Algeria’s government and military throughout the ordeal. Algerian authorities seemed determined to use force even at the risk of harm to hostages, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications.Tough response Analysts said Algeria’s no-negotiations approach had long been a policy and should not have surprised the West or the militants. But the group that asserted responsibility for the attack said in statements Sunday that it had been seeking talks, not a bloodbath.The Signatories in Blood brigade, led by al-Qaeda-linked Mokhtar Belmokhtar, said the Algerian government had ignored its push for a bargain, calling the harsh crackdown “barbaric” in a statement published by the Mauritanian Nouakchott News Agency.