The White House said it had cautioned Algerian officials about the hostage situation at the Algerian gas facility but was not given advance warning of the launch of the rescue attempt. US officials think five to seven Americans were among the hostages. The US deployed a Predator drone over the area, but it did not capture images of the hostages. The White House said it could not confirm whether militants with links to al Qaeda instigated the attack, but that it was trying to find out.
