It's certainly looking like there may have been a blood bath there, which, it be honest, is little surprise. As soon as the Algerian military began their attack, the hostages lives were over.
There's going to be a lot of finger pointing at the Algerian military, but to be honest in the fortunes of warfare any military of the world could have faced the same problems with a similar outcome, all it takes is for one guard to raise the alarm and a quick slice of a knife or the pull of a trigger and fission mailed.
Certainly the odds are better the more advanced a military you have, but there is still the risk of hostages getting killed since there are so many ways of ensuring that even if the hostage takers are killed the hostages don't escape alive, dead mans switches for example.
A sad outcome though, and my thoughts go out to the families of those affected by this.
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