Saldago, the spokesman for the United Nations mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said the hotel was host to a large delegation for the peace process.
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Al Mourabitoun, a militant Islamic group with ties to al Qaeda, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, reports Al Jazeera, though that has not yet been verified by authorities The Times reports that Al Qaeda supporters have been cheering the attack on social media.
One security source said as many as 10 gunmen had stormed the building, although the company that runs the hotel, Rezidor Group, said it understood that there were only two attackers.
A few witnesses say they heard the attackers speaking English; a Malian army officer tells the AP that the gunmen shouted “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is great”, in Arabic as they began their attack.
In Belgium, Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said there were four Belgians registered at the attacked hotel but it’s unclear if they were taken hostage by the gunmen or not.
Air France spokeswoman Ulli Gendrot told The Associated Press that the “the crew is in a safe place”. As many as 10 Chinese tourists were reported to be among those trapped in the hotel.
The hotel’s head of security, Seydou Dembele, said two private security guards had been shot in the legs in the early stages of the assault. “They forced the first barrier”, head of security Seydou Dembele said.
In this image made available by Malikahere.com security personnel, right, attend close to the scene of an attack on a hotel in Bamako, Mali, Friday November 20, 2015.
The Radisson Blu Hotel is in an upscale neighborhood outside the center of Bamako, rising high above the dusty streets and surrounding houses. “While Mali might not have the same emotional significance to the French as Paris does, it is certainly an important part of the French military strategy”.
Two Malian nationals and a French national have died, a United Nations official said without elaborating.
That news has raised fears that dozens of people may be dead. When the militants tried to push into the south, France, at the Malian government’s request, sent thousands of troops in 2013. He did not have information on casualties or the number of assailants involved, but said he was not aware of hostages having been taken at the hotel.
Mali is a former French colony. They were driven out by a French-led military operation, but sporadic violence has continued in Mali’s central belt on the southern reaches of the Sahara, and in Bamako.
“An assault has been launched and we will help ensure with all our means on site that the release of the hostages can be achieved”, Hollande said.
Reynders also said there are “15 hostages who have been freed after an intervention” but didn’t provide more details.
France on Friday afternoon said it dispatched to Mali an elite paramilitary group trained in hostage rescue and counterterrorism operations.
Sangho told the French television station BFMTV that no more hostages were being held.
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Air France has cancelled its Paris-Bamako flight after gunmen attacked a hotel in the Mali capital.
