French action in northern Africa has stirred up tension in the region as a French hostage is murdered execution style in Somalia and al-Qaeda-linked militants take hostages in nearby Algeria.

The French hostage, Denis Allex, held for three years by the militant group al-Shabab, was confirmed dead by the group. On Wednesday, the group released a statement where they said that the group was about to carry out the execution of Allex, on Thursday, al-Shabab announced on Twitter that they had carried out their threat.

Al-Shabab said that the slaying was in direct retaliation for the civilians killed as French troops carried out a raid in an attempt to rescue the hostage. The group also stated that their actions were a protest to France’s anti-muslim policies and military operations in Afghanistan.

Allex was in Somalia training Somali government troops when he was kidnapped in 2009.

In Algeria, a spokesman on Wednesday announced that the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had kidnapped as many as 41 foreigners at a British Petroleum natural gas complex in that country. The AQIM affiliate in Mali reported that seven Americans were among the hostages taken on Wednesday. There were an unspecified number of French nationals among the hostages as well.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta confirmed that American nationals are among the hostages at the complex, although he stated that he was unsure of the number. Panetta could not confirm if there was a link between the hostage-taking in Algeria and the conflict in neighboring Mali. But, Panetta did say, “it is for that reason that we have always been concerned about their presence in Mali — because they would use it a base of operations to do exactly what happened in Algeria. That’s the kind of thing that terrorists do.”

On Thursday, the Algerian government carried out airstrikes on the complex, killing at least 15 of the militants and possibly as many as 34 of the hostages.

An Algerian official has confirmed that an operation at the the complex had been carried out and four hostages had been freed, 25 had escaped and six were killed. The official also reported that the number of hostages killed in the operation has been exaggerated. Although he did state today that they were still awaiting confirmation on the number of deaths, both militant and hostage.

In Mali, many of the residents of Diabaly have fled the city and have begun traveling to the south to escape the insurgent-controlled northern portion of the country. Phone lines in the city are inoperable and the fleeing civilians report that militants have been positioned throughout the city. French forces and militants are locked in skirmishes outside of Diabaly.

France now has as many as 2,500 troops in the country, the French have moved over 1,700 troops into the African country in the last couple of days. The French troops began moving into the African country on last Friday in response to a request from the country’s interim government. Although U.S. officials have said that American troops are not involved in the fighting, the U.S. Military is providing air transport and re-fueling for the French operations in Mali.