WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The United States said onWednesday that U.S. citizens were among the hostages taken whenIslamist militants raided a gas facility in Algeria and thatU.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.
The militants said they had kidnapped up to 41 foreigners,including seven Americans, in the dawn raid in retaliation forFrance's intervention in Mali, according to media reports. Theraiders were also reported to have killed three people,including a Briton and a French national.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, speaking toreporters in Rome where he was on an official trip, said that"by all indications, this is a terrorist act."
"Obviously we're continuing to review the situation todetermine exactly what happened," Panetta said.
"I want to assure the American people that the United Stateswill take all necessary and proper steps that are required todeal with this situation."
Panetta said he did not have any firm information on thenumber of hostages, or on whether there were links to thesituation in Mali, where French troops launched their firstground assault against Islamist rebels on Wednesday after sixdays of air strikes.
"I do know that terrorists are terrorists," Panetta said.
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