Some clarification for those who haven't been following the news about the Mali operation.

The Algerian government is 100% supportive of the Mali operation, see my news thread here; the long-deteriorating situation has been a huge problem for them. The French are using Algeria as an air base for the attacks.

Algerian al-Qaeda sympathizers are part of the motley crew that make up the group that France is attacking, you can read about that in articles on my thread here, but the Christian Science Monitor piece I cite there is the best for summing it up succinctly.

As the Monitor piece explains, the takeover of Northern Mali includes a coalition of

three basic groups: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA)

and it is the first  group on their list that includes Algerians:

AQIM has operated in the north for at least a decade but got its blessing from Osama bin Ladin in 2006. It is mostly made up of Algerians and Mauritanians. Formerly the Group Salafist for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), it was initially made up of hardcore remnants from Algerian civil war. AQIM is thought to be well financed out of kidnapping ransoms and control of smuggling corridors, including cocaine.

The US hasn't really participated yet except at the UN Security Council; we've promised minor support but hadn't really worked out what exactly and how yet, see "Who Is Doing What?" here and other news items on that thread.. (We did recently try to assist France with their Somalia hostage situation and Obama recently reported that publicly to Congress because it is a requirement of the WPA. That situation was regarding yet another Al Qaeda-linked group in Africa, Al Shabab.)

Reports of Airstrikes, Casualties at Algerian Hostage Site
VOA News, Jan 17

Hiding, Praying, Tied to Bombs: Captives Detail Algerian Ordeal

By Lydia Polgreen and Scott Sayare, New York Times, Jan 18/19, 2013

The gunmen, dressed in fatigues and wearing turbans, stormed in well before dawn aboard pickup trucks, announcing their arrival with a burst of gunfire.

Dozens of employees were eating breakfast at the time before heading off to the vast network of tubes and silos of the In Amenas gas field, where hundreds of Algerians and foreigners work to extract natural gas from the arid sands of the Sahara.

“God is great,” the gunmen cried as they arrived.

It was the beginning of a terrifying ordeal — one in which foreign hostages would come under fire from both the gunmen holding them and the Algerian government soldiers trying to free them. For many of the captives, it is an ordeal that has yet to end.

Some hostages were forced to wear explosives on their bodies. Others hid under beds and on rooftops, praying to survive but expecting death. One was shot in the back while his fellow captives looked on. Left by their captors with their cellphones, some phoned home with terrifying accounts of the horrors unfolding all around. [.....]