Drug found in terrorists car, says Sonatrach’s engineer

An Algerian engineer working for the national energy group Sonatrach was among those who negotiated with terrorists to allow women and ill people to get out from the gas complex which had been besieged for 4 days. “I am still shocked. I can’t realize that I am still alive,” he told Echorouk.

Terrorists handcuffed foreign nationals

A.B, 40, says the terrorists attacked the oil field on Wednesday at around 5:30 pm. Four cars came and each one of them went respectively to JGC, a bus carrying nationals to the airport, a gas complex and the living area at Sonatrach.

When clashes started with guards, the terrorists entered Sonatrach’s subsidy, wounded Algerian workers and killed a guard and 5 foreigners. They opened fire in the living area killing a number of people. Foreign nationals were handcuffed and taken to one single place. The hostages were divided into two groups: Algerians and foreigners. Later, the terrorists started negotiating with security forces. They asked for the release of all the terrorists jailed in Algeria since 1995, 100 terrorists arrested in Mali and clear the way to cars to get out. They said they put a car bomb in the gas complex and if the army tried to intervene, they would have blown it up. A security official told them their demands would be discussed in an attempt to gain time.

Generator destroyed and machines blocked

The attackers broke a generator blocking all the activities of the gas complex and the living area. The following day at 9 am, shooting stopped. Two terrorist climbed to the living area. “That was the right time to talk to the terrorists which tried to gain Algerian workers’ support. They asked us to sit down with them and we did. Before that, the attackers wrapped explosives around the foreigners’ neck.”

The terrorists had sophisticated war arms including gun machines of different types.

A Canadian man was among the attackers. “He was called Taher. There were also Algerians, a Tunisian and a Libyan. They said they worked for Mokhtar Belmokhtar.”

“It was 11:30 am when a military helicopter arrived. Phone network was still operating. We called our families and some officials to tell them about the situation.”

Terrorist Taher and US intervention hypothesis

Terrorist Taher told the attackers the US asked the Algerian army through President Bouteflika to allow terrorists to negotiate with them. We did not believe him because he was trying to motivate them as they were afraid.

On lunch time, they asked us to prepare food and allowed us to take women and ill people out of the oil field.

At 3 pm, we heard shots. The foreigners were gathered and covered. The terrorists planned to blow them up. “They asked us to not stay in our rooms and be with them. They advised us to not let women and ill people to get out because the army would kill them. They were not in normal state. I think they had taken drugs because we found brown pills in their cars.

The army detected Taher’s place and strafed him

“In the night, shootings started. The attackers asked us to bring cars to use them as lights. The following day, they decided to leave the living area. They took foreigners on car. They wanted to meet the other terrorists in the gas complex but they failed because the army caught them. As soon as they tried to get out, a helicopter strafed them. Two foreigners only survived. At the same time, the army detected the place of Taher who had a Thuraya satellite phone. He was strafed. That was a good opportunity to run away.”

The terrorists called each other using many names. Of them, Zarkaoui who is originally from the province of Oran (west of Algiers). Tunisians and Libyans were also among the attackers.

The engineer wrote his will as he lost hope to survive

The former hostage was hiding with some Algerians and foreigners who could not run away. “At 5 pm, the place was silent. We started looking for food and water. We found some chocolate and water. We asked foreigners to not get out. We found workers at JGC walking behind fence.”

The engineer said he has never thought of writing a will but he did at that time. “It was not easy. We were all afraid and we all thought that we would die.”

In the refinery, the terrorists gathered workers, wrapped explosives around their neck and put them in a car. Some Algerians with 7 or 8 foreigners were hiding and joined the army on Thursday at around 5 am.

On Friday, the hostages were still in the refinery. The workers thought of forming a crisis cell and tried to reactivate generators. At that time, they heard an explosion at the refinery. “That was a very sensitive moment. We thought the whole field was blown up. The car exploded and there was smoke everywhere.”

“We were very tired and we started losing hope. Clashes started once again. We heard that 5 foreign hostages were freed and the terrorists were killed. An attacker called Ouahrani surrendered.”

A Cameroonian pretended he died

“On Saturday’s morning, the army forces entered and announced that the operation was over. We went back to the living area where 4 hostages were freed. Of them, a Cameroonian was hiding under the bed pretending he died. I started laughing as he did not reply to us although we called him. We took off the blanket and he stood up. The four foreigners spent their time in reading and did not move.”

“It was funny that the terrorists woke us up for prayer. Some of us prayed without performing ablutions.”