ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Algeria's state news agency says special forces have completed their operation to free hostages from a remote desert natural gas complex.

The report gave no new toll for the number of dead among either the hostages or the kidnappers, who were described as a "multinational terrorist" group.

Earlier Algerian TV had said that four foreign workers, two Britons and two Filipinos, died in the operation.

The militants themselves said that dozens had died in the assault.

Algeria's communications minister says his government regrets what he calls a "few dead and wounded" from today's military assault on the Islamist militants who took the hostages yesterday.

He said on Algerian radio that "an important number of hostages were freed and an important number of terrorists were neutralized."

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