ADAM NOSSITER and ALAN COWELL
NY Times ^[1]
Jan 20, 2013

BAMAKO, Mali — A day after the four-day hostage crisis in the Sahara reached a bloody conclusion, government leaders around the world struggled on Sunday to grasp what precisely had happened as Britain ^[2] called for a “global response” lasting “years, even decades” to counter the deep-rooted presence of Islamist militants in North Africa.

The confrontation at a remote gas field taken over by militants ended Saturday as the Algerian Army carried out a final assault, killing most of the remaining kidnappers and raising the total of hostages killed to at least 23, Algerian officials said.

A senior Algerian official was quoted on Sunday as saying that figure “may be revised upward.”

In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron also revised earlier estimates of fatalities, saying on Sunday that three British nationals were killed and three more were believed to have died along with one resident of Britain.

On Saturday, the government said five Britons and one British resident had died or were unaccounted for after the final rescue attempt.

Full article here ^[1]