BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Algerian Special Forces stormed the In Amenas natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday in a "final assault" that ended the four-day hostage crisis. In a provisional count, the Algerian government says 23 hostages and 32 armed kidnappers died since the crisis began on Wednesday morning.

A dramatic assault to end the siege.

Algerian Special Forces stormed the In Amenas gas plant.

That operation is now over, but a mine clearing team is inside the plant which the militants had rigged to blow up.

The final rescue operation at the Tiguentourine gas field freed four foreign hostages.

One of them is Norwegian, one from Cameroon, and two Brirains. A security source told Xinhua.

Freed hostages have spoken about their ordeal. "When I woke up early Wednesday morning I heard the alarm sound and gun fighting. I heard the gun fighting and then according to procedure we stayed in the room. I stayed in the room until this morning we were rescued by the military."

"They met a bus at the entrance of the base’s living quarters, they released a few and killed the foreigners on the spot and the Algerian security officers and then they returned to the base’s living quarters and took hostages."

The official Algerian news agency APS says seven hostages were killed by their captors during the final raid. Their nationalities are not yet known.

The al-Qaida-linked militants attacked the plant on Wednesday morning, taking hundreds of workers hostage.

The government says the dozens of hostage-takers were armed with both light and heavy weapons including mortars and anti-aircraft missiles.

The attackers are thought to be members of a Mali-based group with Al-Qaeda links.

A man widely suspected of being behind the attack on the Algerian gas field is Mokhtar Belmokhtar -- who leads a group that calls itself the "Signed-in-Blood Battalion".

He’s thought to have been involved in many hostage incidents, including the kidnapping of 32 European tourists in the Sahara desert in 2003.

The militants who seized the In Amenas plant on Wednesday said they were taking revenge for Algeria’s support of France’s operation against Islamist rebels in Mali.

(Source: CNTV.cn)