Two more US citizens killed in the Algeria standoff were identified yesterday, bringing the American death toll to three.
Gas workers Victor Lynn Lovelady and Gordon Lee Rowan were killed at the Ain Amenas field in the Sahara, the State Department confirmed. US officials identified Frederick Buttaccio of a Houston suburb as the first death last week.
Seven other Americans were rescued after Algerian commandos stormed the plant, which had been seized by about 30 al Qaeda-linked terrorists, officials said.
“I’m glad we were able to get some rescued, but we did lose three Americans,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said as he was leaving the Capitol, where he attended President Obama’s inauguration.
“That just tells us that al Qaeda is committed to creating terror wherever they are and we’ve got to fight back,” he said.
No details were given about how the Americans died or how the others escaped.
Algeria says 38 hostages of many different nationalities and 29 militants died in the standoff. Five foreign workers remain unaccounted for.
Algerian officials said the attackers wore military uniforms and knew the layout — including explosives experts who rigged the plant with bombs and a leader whose final order was to kill all the captives.
The hostage operation was helped by someone with inside knowledge, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told reporters yesterday, saying a former driver at the plant was in on the terror plan.
Two other employes of the sprawling plant were reported being interrogated.
Officials said the terrorist leading the attack had Canadian citizenship and was identified only as Chedad, a surname found among Arabs in North Africa.
Sellal said Chedad “gave the order for all the foreigners to be killed, so there was a mass execution, many hostages were killed by a bullet to the head.”
A spokesman for the terror group claimed the attack was retaliation for French intervention the previous week against Islamic radicals in neighboring Mali.