Malian special forces stormed the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako after Islamist terrorists took 170 people hostage on Friday, Reuters reported. Seven hours after the attackers entered the hotel, Malian authorities declared that the siege was over and all hostages were freed. A body count following the rescue effort determined that 19 people, many of them foreigners, were killed during the attack.
The terrorist groups al-Mourabitoun and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the assault, which began in the early morning hours. The gunmen reportedly entered the hotel while firing their weapons and shouting “Allahu Akbar.” According to Reuters, “Some people were freed by the attackers after showing they could recite verses from the Koran, while others were brought out by security forces or managed to escape under their own steam.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby said that about a dozen American citizens were rescued, including a number who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, The Washington Post reported.
Reuters noted that several French nationals were present at the hotel during the assault, which came just a week after jihadists carried out a series of lethal attacks in France. None were reported killed.
The raid on the hotel, which lies just west of the city center near government ministries and diplomatic offices, came a week after Islamic State militants killed 129 people in Paris, raising fears that French nationals were being specifically targeted.
Twelve Air France (AIRF.PA) flight crew were in the building but all were extracted safely, the French national carrier said.
Al-Mourabitoun, one of the terrorists group behind Friday’s assault, has previously claimed responsibility for a number of attacks. In August, the Islamists led a siege on a hotel in Sévaré, a town situated a little under 400 miles northeast of Bamako, during which 17 people were killed, including five UN personnel. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the group’s leaders, orchestrated a 2013 attack on a gas facility in Algeria, where at least 37 hostages died.
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