Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan strongly condemns terrorist attacks on a gas complex in south Algeria that took place on January 16, spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elman Abdullayev told Trend news agency on Thursday.

"We are deeply saddened to learn about casualties and offer our sincere condolences to the families of victims and share the grief of those affected by the attacks," he said.

Abdullayev said Azerbaijan as a country that has been victim of terrorism has always been at the forefront of international efforts to tackle terrorism.

Abdullayev noted that Azerbaijan strongly condemns all forms and manifestation of terrorism.

"We believe that the international community should consolidate its efforts and strengthen cooperation in rooting out all forms of terrorism.

"Azerbaijan has always raised the issue of global fight against terrorism in different international organisations. Recently, during its presidency of the UN Security Council in May 2012 President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev convened a special meeting of the UN Security Council to explore ways how to boost international cooperation in tackling terrorism," he said.

Following the capture of hostages in the Almenas gas complex in Tigenturin of the eastern province Illizi, Algerian security forces stormed the facility. Some 685 local workers and 107 foreigners were released as a result of the operation.

According to the Interior Ministry, at least 23 hostages were killed. The military and special forces killed 32 terrorists.

According to the Algerian An-Nahar TV channel, the law enforcement agencies of the republic arrested five more participants of the gas field attack on Sunday. At the same time, "three of them managed to escape," head of the channel Anis Rahmani said.

Some 40 Jihad militants from various countries took part in the attack. According to the media, Europeans may have been amongst the terrorists. Norwegian NRK TV channel reported that Norwegian police officers are currently specifying information on a tall, blonde haired, blue-eyed person who was identified as native of northern Europe by the hostages participating in the attack.