Report: Hostages In Algeria Have Escaped

Looks like we may have some good news to start off this morning! The 20 hostages, including 3 Americans, being held at a natural gas site in Algeria have escaped from their captors. From the NY Post:

Twenty foreign hostages, including Americans, escaped from their captors Thursday, an Algerian official said.

The hostages had been taken captive at a natural gas complex in an apparent retaliation for the French intervention in Mali.

If this report is accurate, this would be an amazing ending to this situation. When a group that has been identified as being linked to Al-Qaeda is surrounded and outnumbered, anyone getting out alive is miracle, let alone all 20 being that were being  held.

UPDATE: Reuters is now reporting that 34 of the hostages and 15 of their terrorist captors were killed by air strikes by Algerian army. I don’t know if these happened after 20 escaped as in the earlier report,  or if the first report was erroneous. Either way this is a very sad development. You can follow the previous link for more updates on this situation.