An incomprehensible mess.

A couple of days ago a group of terrorists, probably around 20 fighters, took over a gas-field called In Amenas in eastern Algeria near the border with Libya. The group, calling themselves al Mulathameen,  claimed to be holding 41 crusaders hostage including Americans, British, Japanese, Norwegian, Malaysian and Filipinos. The fighters first attacked a bus carrying workers at dawn killing one Briton and one Algerian before taking over the gas-field in what appeared to be a well planned attack. The field is operated by BP of Britain, Statoil of Norway and Sonatrach of Algeria. They claim that this is in revenge for the French action  against the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM in Mali but experts think that it was planned in advance. The Algerian army attacked yesterday afternoon to regain the field from the terrorists and till now no one knows how many hostages have been killed in the process, which is still going on. Prime Minister, David Cameron has postponed a visit to the Netherlands where he was to have delivered an important speech on whether to hold a referendum on continuing British membership of the European Union. He has warned the British to expect bad news from Algeria. Perhaps he should also be telling his people of his own responsibility in the deaths of British citizens. It was Cameron and the then President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy who pushed for bombing of Colonel Gaddafi's forces in Libya. They managed to obtain a Security Council resolution only to protect civilians in Libya but used it to bomb Gaddafi's forces, killing 30,000 Libyans, and his convoy leading to his capture and death. Gaddafi was removed but Libya has remained a divided country where militant groups continue to rule different areas. In September of 2012 a militant group, Ansar al Sharia attacked the US embassy in Benghazi killing the American Ambassador, J Christopher Stevens and 3 other Americans. Meanwhile heavily armed Tuaregs from Gaddafi's army returned home to northern Mali and launched a rebellion for freedom calling themselves Ansar Dine. Beaten by the rebels a faction of the army led by Captain Amadou Sanogo launched a coup against the elected government in Bamako last March. Meanwhile Tuareg rebels were joined by fighters from the AQIM and an offshoot called Movement for Oneness and Jihad in west Africa. They took over the fight against the Malian army and soon " liberated " the entire north of the country where they imposed Sharia law. Seeing that the entire country was going to fall to this group French President Francois Hollande sent French troops to Mali last week to root out Islamists. Hence this hostage situation in Algeria. If it sounds an incomprehensible mess then it is. This is globalisation of terror which is not taught at Eton. Wonder if Cameron has learnt anything.