Algerian Flag/ Creative Commons

The State Department identified gas workers Victor Lynn Lovelady, Gordon Lee Rowan and Fredrick Buttaccio as the three Americans killed in the four-day standoff between a Muslim Jihadist group and the Algerian military at the Ain Amenas filed in the Sahara.

U.S. officials confirmed Buttaccio of Katy, Texas, as the first death last week. 

Islamic terrorists used hostages as human shields after their attempted mass kidnapping for ransom went wrong, according to USA Today. 

Lovelady, from Nederland, Texas, had only worked at the plant for 10 days, said his wife in a televised interview with CBS News. 

The Associated Press reported that another American hostage from Colorado survived the ordeal by hiding from terrorists for 2 1/2 days before escaping to an Algerian military base nearby.

Other hostages shared similar survival stories. One Scottish hostage hid in the plant during the entire siege, according to CBS News. 

Officials do not know how the three Americans died. 

Earlier Monday, Algeria's prime minister said one or two Canadian citizen helped organize and lead the attack, and the attackers wore Algerian military uniforms and had sources working inside the plant. 

The 38 dead gas workers represented about eight different countries, including seven Japanese workers, six Filipinos, three energy workers each from the U.S. and Britain, two from Romania and one worker from France, the AP reported. 

In all, 29 terroriests were killed during the assaults by Algerian military forces, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said.

From AP: 

Militants who attacked Ain Amenas had offered to release Lovelady and Rowan in exchange for the freedom of two prominent terror suspects jailed in the United States: Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind sheik convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks and considered the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist convicted of shooting at two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Obama administration had rejected the offer in hopes of working more with Algeria's government to better understand the situation and find another alternative. 

The siege began last Wednesday when Mali-based militants, linked to al-Qaeda, attempted to hijack two buses at the plant and then seized the gas refinery when refinery authorities fought back. The AP reported the attack was in retaliation against France's recent military presence and intervention in Mali against Islamic rebels.