Hostages used as shields: Survivor I was ready to

Die: Japanese hostage

Manila, Jan. 21: Islamic militants used foreign hostages as human shields to stop Algerian troops aboard helicopters from strafing them with gunfire, a Filipino survivor of the four-day bloodbath recounted on Monday.

Father-of-four Joseph Balmaceda said he saw one Japanese hostage draped with explosives, while he and others had their hands bound with cable ties, during the ordeal at the In Amenas gas plant in the Sahara Desert that Tokyo: A Japanese hostage who narrowly survived the attack said he was sure he would die after seeing two colleagues shot dead in front of him, a report said on Monday. The unnamed man described how Islamist gunmen had dragged him from his barricaded room, handcuffed him and executed two hostages standing nearby, as an Algerian survivor told of explosives strapped to bound captives. “I was prepared to die,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Yomiuri newspaper. — AFP ended on Saturday.

“Whenever government troops tried to use a helicopter to shoot at the enemy, we were used as human shields,” a clearly stressed Balmaceda told reporters shortly after arriving back in Manila.

“We were told to raise our hands. The government forces could not shoot at them as long as we were held hostage.” Balmaceda, nursing abrasions to his face and a loss of hearing, said he was the only survivor out of nine hostages who were aboard a van that exploded, apparently from C-4 explosives that the militants had rigged to the vehicle. He said two militants were transferring the nine hostages to the central facility of the gas plant but the bomb went off during a clash with Algerian security forces. — AFP