Al Qaeda affiliate claims attack on Algerian gas plant

Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for launching a rocket-propelled grenade on an Algerian gas plant on Friday.

The gas plant run by Britain’s BP, Norway’s Statoil and the Algerian state-owned oil company was hit in the morning but no casualties were reported.

AQIM claims the rocket attack against a gas complex operated by BP and Statoil in southern #Algeria pic.twitter.com/BusMvTjJRY

— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) March 19, 2016

“There are no reports of any injuries to personnel at the site and the Central Processing Facility (CPF) has been shutdown as a safety precaution,” BP said in a statement.

“We are in touch with the In Salah Gas Joint Venture team, our joint venture partners Statoil and Sonatrach and all relevant stakeholders and are providing support to ensure the safety of those involved,” the petroleum firm added.

The Salah Gas plant is about 200 kilometres away from the Oasis town in Central Algeria.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) issued a statement saying they carried out the attack to prove that the Algerian government has not quashed terrorism.

“Even if your Western masters believed you were in control previously, how will you justify your position now?” the militant group said.

This is not the first attack in a gas plant in the North African country. In 2013, militants carried out an attack in the Ain Amenas gas plant, which left at least 38 workers dead.

The insurgency group has carried out a spate of attacks in the continent including Sunday’s attack in Ivory Coast that left 18 people dead as a retaliation to French offensives against Islamist militants.