Hostages 'escape Algeria captors'

[Jimbuna]

A small piece of positive news on this potentially deadly situation.

I certainly don't see their demand that France pulls its soldiers out of Mali being met.

A number of hostages have escaped the Islamist militants who took them captive at a gas facility in eastern Algeria, media and officials say.
Details of the escape and the numbers involved remain unclear, but some 30-40 Algerians and 15-25 foreign nationals were reported to have escaped.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21060323

[Skybird]

Algerian helicopter assault leaves "dozens" of hostages dead, one dozen terrorists should have been killed, too. Current status unclear. Source: various German news.

[MH]

Seems all but 7 hostages killed?
Something went terribly wrong there.....

[BossMark]

Somebody's buggered up here big style

[Bilge_Rat]

These operations are always tricky and anyone can make a mistake, but the Algerian military simply does not have the expertise for this.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

These operations are always tricky and anyone can make a mistake, but the Algerian military simply does not have the expertise for this.

Soime Wetsern special units may have it. But whether politicians would have the guts to order them to become active, is something different. Today, we solve conflicts by negotiating and finally making some payment, to give the other side the chance to save its face, and to demonstrate that we understand the social complexity of a situation that roots in a precious foreign culture.

Too subtle for some of the scum haunting human life on this planet, it seems. Say about Islamic terrorists what yiu want: they often display a level of determination and unscrupulousness that we do not have. Reminds me of the wars in the medieval, in the unholy land. European armies better armed, Muslim armies death-defying.

I think this difference in mentality and motivation is most important. Soldiers volunteering for UN missions probably do not understand that when dreaming of helping to build schools and dig dwells and repair bridges. While their opponent is dreaming of little heaps of cut-off children arms because they showed sings of having gotten an injection by medical aid workers.