By The Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 9:28 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

ALGIERS — Algerian forces scoured the Sahara Desert on Tuesday, searching for five foreign energy workers who vanished during a chaotic four-day battle with hostage-taking Islamist militants.

One official said the men may have fled the sprawling complex during the fighting and gotten lost.

The four-day confrontation that began when al-Qaida-affiliated militants stormed the remote desert natural gas complex and took hostages early last week, was punctuated by exploding cars, attacks from helicopters and a final assault by Algerian special forces.

In all, 37 hostages, including an Algerian security guard, and 29 militants were killed, but five other foreign workers remain unaccounted for.

“Are they dead? Did they attempt to flee the site after the attack like some other expatriates? Are they lost in the desert after taking a wrong turn?” an official who is part of Prime Minister Abdemalek Sellal's office told The Associated Press. “These are all questions we ask ourselves, but one thing is sure, everything is being done to know their fate.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The Ain Amenas gas plant, jointly run by BP, Norway's Statoil and the Algerian state oil company, is located deep in the Sahara, some 800 miles south of the Mediterranean coast, with few population centers nearby.

More than 700 people work at the facility, including 130 foreigners from 26 countries who were targeted by the militants.

The Islamists caught as many of those foreign workers as they could and wrapped some with explosives to use as human shields.

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