A hostage crisis in Algeria has ended with the deaths of seven foreigners and 11 Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen.
SECURITY forces say the bodies of 25 foreigners have been found after a stand-off with Islamists, including nine Japanese hostages.
Citing security sources, Anis Rahmani of the private television channel Ennahar said the army discovered "the bodies of 25 hostages" as they sought to secure the sprawling Sahara site at In Amenas.
"In all nine Japanese were killed," one Algerian witness identified as Brahim said a day after special forces swooped on the gas plant run by Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil and Sonatrach of Algeria to end the siege that began Wednesday.
In Tokyo, a foreign ministry official said: "We are in a position not to comment on this kind of information at all. Please understand."
Amateur video appears to show burnt out vehicles following a government attack on a convoy of vehicles from an Algerian desert gas plant. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
Governments scrambled to track down missing citizens as details emerged of the deadly showdown after Islamists of the "Signatories in Blood" group raided the plant on Wednesday, demanding an end to French military intervention in Mali.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement that "it is now clear that this appalling terrorist incident in Algeria is now over.
An image from Algeria's Ennahar TV shows hostages surrendering to Islamist gunmen who overtook a gas facility in Tiguentourine near In Amenas in the south of the country.
"Tragically, we now know that three British nationals have been killed, and a further three are believed to be dead. And also a further British resident is also believed to be dead."
Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp had said 10 of its Japanese and seven of its foreign workers remained unaccounted for, before the reports became known of Japanese hostages being executed.
Kuala Lumpur said JGC had told it one of two Malaysians still unaccounted for is dead whilst the fate of the other was unknown.
Two freed British hostages identified as Peter (centre) and Alan (left) with an unidentified Norwegian hostage outside a police station in Ain Amenas, Algeria.
Norway's Statoil, which operates the gas plant alongside Britain's BP and Sonatrach of Algeria, said the situation remains "unresolved" for five Statoil employees.
"We will, and we must, keep hoping for more positive news from Algeria. However, we must be prepared to deal with bad news in the next few days," Statoil CEO Helge Lund said.
Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed in the 72-hour stand-off, and the army freed "685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners," Algeria's interior ministry said on Saturday.
Freed Algerian hostages arrive at Algiers airport after they were released by Islamist captors from a gas plant in In Amenas. Seven foreign hostages and 11 Islamist gunmen were killed on Saturday when the desert stand-off ended in a bloodbath.
Relatives of Kenneth Whiteside, 59, from Glenrothes in Scotland, were "devastated" after hearing that an Algerian co-worker claimed to have seen him being shot but dying bravely with a smile, Britain's Mail on Sunday reported.
The mother of survivor Stephen McFaul, 36, from Belfast, told the Sunday Mirror her son will "have nightmares for the rest of his life after the things he saw.".
Forced to wear explosives, he fled when the hostage-takers' convoy he was in came under fire on Thursday.
A satellite image shows the Amenas Gas Field in Algeria where the foreign hostages were held by al-Qaida-linked militants. Picture: DigitalGlobe
In Saturday's final assault, "the Algerian army took out 11 terrorists, and the terrorist group killed seven foreign hostages," state television said, without giving a breakdown.
A security official told AFP it was believed the foreigners were executed "in retaliation."
The militants, whose leader is Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former Al-Qaida commander, first killed a Briton and an Algerian on a bus on Wednesday before taking hundreds of workers hostage when they overran the In Amenas plant.
A rescued hostage receives treatment in a hospital In Amenas.
Most of the hostages were freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a first rescue operation which was widely condemned as hasty.
But US President Barack Obama and his French counterpart Francois Hollande said responsibility for the deaths lay with the "terrorists."
"The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms," Mr Obama said in a statement.
A family photograph of escaped Irish hostage Stephen McFaul, seen with his sons. Mr McFaul has contacted his family in Belfast to tell them he is safe, Ireland said. Picture: AFP/HO/Family album
At least one American had already been confirmed dead before Saturday's final assault.
Mr Cameron refused to criticise Algeria, saying the attack on the In Amenas gas complex had been an "extremely difficult" situation to deal with.
Mr Hollande called Algiers' response "the most appropriate" given it was dealing with "coldly determined terrorists ready to kill their hostages."
A photo of the In Amenas gas field in Algeria, where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign hostages on Wednesday. Picture: AFP/Statoil/Kjetil Alsvik
Monitoring group IntelCenter said the hostage-taking was the largest since the 2008 Mumbai attack, and the biggest by jihadists since hundreds were killed in a Moscow theatre in 2002 and at a school in the Russian town of Beslan in 2004.
Algerian driver Iba El Haza said the hostage-takers spoke in different Arabic dialects.
"From their accents I understood one was Egyptian, one Tunisian, another Algerian and one was speaking English or (another) foreign language," he said after escaping on Thursday.
"The terrorists said: 'You have nothing to do with this, you are Algerians and Muslims. We won't keep you, we only want the foreigners'."
Mr Hollande said French troops would stay in neighbouring Mali as long as was needed "to defeat terrorism" in the West African country and its neighbours.
Malian and French troops patrolled the outskirts of the contested northern town of Diabaly on Sunday in a show of muscle a day after West African leaders demanded speedy UN aid to rout Islamists holding the vast desert north.
This video grab shows former al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emir Mokhtar Belmokhtar speaking at an undisclosed location. Picture: AFP
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Europe 1 radio Sunday that the hostage-taking in Algeria showed the need to be "relentless in the face of terrorism."
Defence Minister Stephen Smith believes no Australians have been caught up in a terrorist attack in Algeria.
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