Algeria hostage drama

The Foreign Ministry was yesterday checking to verify a report that Thai workers were among a group of foreigners being held hostage by an al Qaeda-linked group at a natural-gas complex in Algeria, Information Department director-general Manasvi Srisodapol said.

About 70 Thais work on a separate, offshore gas-drilling platform.

Thirty-five hostages and 15 of their captors were killed when Algerian security forces stormed the complex, according to Al-Jazeera television and Mauritania's private ANI news agency. The militants had been trying to move the hostages in vehicles when they came under attack.