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RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / STATOIL / KJETIL ALSVIK” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
This undated hand out picture released by Norway’s energy group Statoil on January 17, 2013 shows a road sign near the In Amenas gas field, jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway’s Statoil and state-run Algerian energy firm Sonatrach, in eastern Algeria near the Libyan border. Algerian troops surrounded Islamists holding foreign hostages at the gas field on January 17, a day after a deadly attack the gunmen said was in reprisal for Algeria’s cooperation in French operations in Mali. The Islamists told Mauritanian media they were holding 41 Westerners. Their captives included French, British and Japanese citizens, as well as seven Americans, they said, adding that the action was in response to Algeria’s opening of its air space to French warplanes involved in an assault on Islamists in neighbouring Mali. AFP PHOTO / STATOIL / KJETIL ALSVIK