Kyodo via AP

An Islamic militant (in camouflage uniform, rear right) stands near Algerian employees who were forced to leave their living quarters with their belongings at the In Amenas natural gas complex in Algeria on Jan. 16.

The images are striking for what they don’t show. They hold only hints of the bloodshed to come.

The Japanese news agency Kyodo has released the first photographs from inside a hostage crisis in the North African nation of Algeria, secretly snapped by one of the captives with a cellphone camera.

Islamist fighters stormed a gas field and nearby barracks on Jan. 16 and took hundreds of people hostage. The Algerian army launched a rescue raid the following day, opening a three-day standoff.

It ended in a bloody clash. The Algerian government put the death toll at 67, including 38 foreign workers and 29 militants. The U.S. State Department said that three Americans were among those killed.

The photos released by Kyodo depict the opening hours of the crisis. They show a scene that -- while certainly not safe -- appeared stable.

In one shot, an Islamic militant, armed and wearing a mask and camouflage uniform, stands several feet away from three Algerian workers who had been forced to leave their living quarters. One of the three is wearing a hoodie, and another has his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Kyodo via Reuters

An Islamic militant (rear center, in camouflage) stands among Algerian employees who were forced to leave their living quarters with their belongings at the In Amenas natural gas complex on Jan. 16.

In a second photo, Algerian workers stand around among duffel bags and plastic water bottles arranged on the ground outside. A militant appears in the background, facing away, easy to miss but for the butt of his rifle.

A third picture is far more ominous: In the foreground are several militants, in the background at least a dozen hostages, forced to sit against a wall of the complex.

Kyodo via AP

Islamic militants stand in front of foreign hostages, seen sitting against a wall, at the Ain Amenas natural gas complex on Jan. 16.

Kyodo did not say how it had obtained the photos. A Japanese government source said on Monday that the Algerian government listed nine Japanese killed in the siege, the highest toll among non-Algerians working at the site.

A tense standoff in which a Thai man held his wife hostage with a knife to her throat ended after six hours when police used a Taser gun to disable him.

A crowd gathered to watch as 30-year-old Sakdawut Hamsiri threatened his wife, Thawee Naiyanit, on a street in Bangkok.

Police are pressing charges against Hamsiri in connection with physical restraint and narcotics usage, The Associated Press told msnbc.com.

His wife was sent to hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Sakchai Lalit / AP

Sakdawut Hamsiri holds a knife to his wife Thawee Naiyanit's throat on a street in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 5, 2012.

Sakchai Lalit / AP

A policeman talks to Hamsiri during the standoff.

Sakchai Lalit / AP

Police said Hamsiri was under the influence of drugs.

Sakchai Lalit / AP

Police electroshock Hamsiri with a Taser to bring the incident to an end.

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AP

British tourist Judith Tebbutt, 56, who was snatched by Somali gunmen from a resort island in Kenya and whose husband David Tebbutt was killed in the attack, is seen after being freed following more than six months in captivity in Adado, Somalia Wednesday, March 21.

AFP - Getty Images

British hostage Judith Tebbutt, is pictured at a house in Adado, central Somalia on March 21, before her departure. British hostage Judith Tebbutt was released in Somalia on March 21, more than six months after she was abducted from an isolated Kenyan resort by kidnappers who killed here husband.

AFP - Getty Images

British hostage Judith Tebbutt, left, is escorted to a plane at Adado airport after she was released in central Somalia on March 21. Freed British hostage Judith Tebbutt arrived Wednesday in the Kenyan capital after being released in war-torn Somalia where she had been held in captivity for more than six months.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A British tourist snatched by Somali gunmen from a resort island in Kenya was freed on Wednesday after more than six months in captivity, according to reports.

Judith Tebbutt was taken in September by gunmen who killed her husband, David Tebbutt, during the attack.

The Associated Press reported that Tebbutt's release on Wednesday was confirmed by a Somali pirate named Bile Hussein and by an official with the militia Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama named Mohammed Hussein.

Read the full account of Tebbutt's release here.