Police confirm second Canadian linked to Algeria gas plant attack
TORONTO | Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:33pm EDT
(Reuters) - Canadian police said on Saturday that they had identified a second Canadian among the dead suspects in a January attack and hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant.
Around 70 people died when Algerian troops stormed the Tigantourine desert gas plant near the town of In Amenas and ended the siege. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said at the time that a Canadian gunman had coordinated the operation.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were dispatched to Algeria to investigate. A spokesman for Canada's national police force said in an e-mail on Saturday that a second Canadian had been identified from the remains of the alleged attackers.
"Our investigation into this matter continues and no further information will be given at this time," the spokesman said.
U.S. intelligence officials had said in January that signs that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack by Islamist militants were of great concern to American authorities.
The possibility that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack on the facility in the Algerian desert raised concerns among security officials about a worrying nexus between North America and North African militants.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
