WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The United States said onWednesday that U.S. citizens were among the hostages taken whenIslamists raided a gas facility in Algeria and that U.S.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had telephoned Algeria'sprime minister to discuss the incident.
"Beyond confirming that there are Americans among thehostages, I will ask you to respect our decision not to get intoany further details as we try to secure these people," StateDepartment spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news briefing.
Nuland said Clinton had spoken with both Algerian PrimeMinister Abdelmalek Sellal and the U.S. ambassador in Algeria onThursday, and that U.S. officials were also in contact with thesecurity office of British Petroleum, which operates thegas field together with Norway's Statoil and Algeria'sstate company Sonatrach.