Captioning sponsored by cbs this is the cbs evening news with scott pelley. Pelley good evening. This is a developing situation but one highranking source in the u. S. Government is telling us at this hour that four americans have been freed, one of them injured, after an airborne military assault on terrorists in algeria. We want to empsiels assault is still ongoing and the information is fluid. The americans were taken hostage yesterday, along with dozens of others, at a plant in a remote oil and gas field near the libyan border. A group that claims to be affiliated with al qaeda seizedly the plant. They said it was in retaliation for the French Military attacks on islamic extremists in nearby mali. The situation is not entirely clear. We do not have definitive information on the number of00s or casualties. Algerian Authorities Say tonight a number of hostage hostages and terrorists have been killed. Traveling in london, defense secretary leon panetta said either seven or eight ameri
Standoff at a massive natural gas plant in the algerian desert turned violent and bloody. Algerian troops had surrounded the plant after a number of Foreign Workers some reports say more than 40 were taken hostage by an Islamic Group calling itself the mass brigade, and claiming ties to al qaeda. Security sources told us that, when the prisoners were moved within the compound, algerian gunships opened fire. One irish hostage, steven mcfaul, recounted the ordeal to an arabic tv channel as it was happening. Reporter steven mcfauls family were celebrating tonight. He, along with an unknown number of other hostages, managed to escape. His son, dillon, was overjoyed. I feel over the moon. Im just really excited. I just cant wait for him to get home. Reporter at least one american, mark cobb, who had been hiding in a meeting room, is known to have gotten out of the gas plant as well. The algerians say their operation is now over. Early reports, unconfirmed, say as many as 30 humans, algerian