African jihadi group claims responsibility for attack in which 170 people were taken hostage, a week after Paris atrocity
A terror attack at a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital has left at least 21 people dead, including two militants, and highlighted the world’s growing vulnerability to extremist violence.
Less than a week after the Paris gun and suicide bomb attacks in which 130 people were killed, a group of heavily armed and seemingly well-trained gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
They drove unchallenged into an inner compound, detonated grenades, opened fire at security guards and then took hostage about 170 people –among them diplomats, a celebrated Guinean singer and air crew from France and Turkey, as well as Indian and Chinese nationals. Three Chinese, one American and one Belgian were among the dead.
The president of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Këita, speaking on national television late on Friday evening, declared a national state of emergency effective from midnight. As well as the 19 people and two Islamist militants killed, he said seven people had been wounded in the attack.
The siege was the latest in a string of recent high-profile terror attacks, from bombings in Beirut and the downing of a Russian airline over the Sinai desert to the events in Paris.
By late Friday night Malian special forces assisted by counterparts from the US and France had fought their way through the hotel floor by floor, reportedly killing at least two of the gunmen. A security source in Mali said the incident was over by the early evening. At least 30 people escaped during the siege. “The attackers no longer have hostages,” said a security ministry spokesman, Amadou Sanghou.
A military official said the gunmen shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they began the attack. Al-Mourabitoun, an African jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility in a message posted on Twitter.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/20/mali-attack-highlights-global-spread-extremist-violence
