Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Algeria has identified a Canadian as coordinator of the Al
Qaida strike on the nation’s leading natural gas plant.

The Algerian government said the Canadian, identified only as Chedad,
helped recruit and direct the attack on the Ein Amenas liquefied natural gas
facility near the Libyan border.

Officials said the Canadian, killed by Algerian security forces, had worked with several cells, including Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.

“A Canadian was among the militants,” Algerian Prime Minister Abdul
Malek Sellal said. “He was coordinating the attack.”

At a news conference on Jan. 21, Sellal provided details of the four-day
standoff at Ein Amenas. He said two Canadians joined nationals from Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Tunisia. The attack is said to have been facilitated by a former driver at the gas plant.

“The group planned the operation for more than two months,” Sellal said.

Sellal acknowledged that the military fired rockets toward vehicles that
contained the hostages. He said attack helicopters tried to stop Al
Qaida fighters from escaping the LNG plant, operated by British Petroleum.

“When their hostage-for-ransom operation failed, the terrorists began to
kill the hostages,” Sellal said. “Later, they tried to blow up the gas
facility. But the Algerian special forces were able to abort the plot.”

In all, 38 hostages and 29 Islamist fighters were killed in the Algerian
Army raid of Ein Amenas, officials said. They said all but one of the dead
hostages were foreigners.

Three of the Al Qaida operatives were captured alive while five foreign
workers remain unaccounted. Officials said the attackers first targeted a
bus believed to contain foreign employees at Ein Amenas.

“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.”

  Abdul Malek Sellal, Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, Algerians: Canadian national led terror strike at gas facility, British Petroleum, Ein Amenas natural gas facility