article: Japan called for an end to the raid, summoning the Algerian ambassador to express concern for the lives of the captives and to plead for up-to-date information. British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "disappointed" not to have been told about the raid in advance. But while many details of how events at the In Amenas plant have unfolded remain unclear, Algeria's decision to deal with the kidnappers forcefully and unilaterally fits with a deeply-entrenched and uncompromising approach to counter-terrorism. "I'd be surprised if they'd reacted any other way," said Jon Marks, an Algeria analyst and head of the Cross-border Information consultancy. "From the Algerian point of view the attackâ€¦ was an affront to the prestige of the Algerian military which is a very central part of the Algerian value system." The military is still seen as the ultimate arbiter of power in Algeria, and has never been placed fully under civilian control. The army, and the governments it supports, derive much of their legitimacy from largely winning the military battle against Islamist insurgents in the 1990s, during a vicious conflict that left as many as 150,000 people dead. Algerian authorities have expressed some bitterness that they were left to fight this conflict on their own, before most of the rest of the world was confronted with the threat from Islamist militancy. But they also take pride in their counter-terrorism experience, their military suppression of armed groups and their publicly-stated reluctance to negotiate or pay ransoms. "We say that confronted with terrorism, yesterday as today and tomorrow, there will be no negotiation, no blackmail, no let-up in the fight against terrorism," said Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said Belaid. "Those who think we will negotiate with terrorists are delusional." The conflict in the 1990s was fought in the north of Algeria. Armed groups have only become more active in Algeria's vast southern desert and neighbouring Sahel states in recent years. They have carried out kidnappings, mainly outside Algeria, and have never launched a major attack on the oil and gas industry that has long been the backbone of Algeria's economy. However, both the alleged organiser of Wednesday's attack, Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and the prospect of a drawn-out kidnapping saga, are darkly familiar to the Algerian authorities. "They know Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his gang very well and they know very well that these are people who are extremely adept at operating in the Sahara regions," said Jon Marks, referring to reports that the Algerians intervened when some of the kidnappers and hostages tried to leave the plant. The risk, he said, was that they would take the hostages to a remote part of the desert and then negotiate for ransoms or prisoner exchanges, "and they used the bluntest of instruments, which was air power, to stop those cars". "With the western governments you've got the view which is predominant that they've got a duty of care towards the hostages," he added. "Whereas in the perception of those people running the operation, it was very much, 'you must deal with the terrorists and
summary: Algeria's military intervention against kidnappers at a Saharan gas plant apparently came as a surprise to those foreign governments whose citizens were being held hostage.