Militant group, Al Mourabitoun claimed it was jointly responsible for the attack with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, local news said.
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As many as 170 people were in the hotel when gunmen burst into the lobby Friday morning spraying gunfire.
Late on Saturday, the dead were identified as three Chinese business officials, an Israeli – as yet unnamed, two Belgians and an American charity worker.
A security source yesterday told AFP that the authorities were “actively pursuing” at least three people over the attack in the former French colony. Nowhere in the world right now are we safe from the barbarians of today.
Pope Francis on Sunday offered his condolences to the Malian people, in the form of a telegram to the archbishop of Bamako.
Ahead of the three days of national mourning, the chairman of the West African regional bloc Ecowas, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, visited Bamako to show support.
Keita said that Mali will not shut down just as Paris and NY did not close down after 9/11 and the deadly storm of attacks respectively. A few United Nations staff were in the hotel but they got out safely, he added. Security remained tight around the Radisson and other hotels in Bamako and was also boosted at public buildings and banks. The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said three Chinese citizens had been killed in the attack. “We stand together with Mali and together we will lead the fight”.
It was the secular separatist groups that first wrested northern Mali from the government in 2012, using weapons looted from arsenals in neighboring Libya, but they were soon overtaken by al-Qaida-allied radicals. They were driven out by a French-led military operation, but violence has continued in Bamako and central Mali on the southern reaches of the Sahara.
Malian television broadcast chaotic scenes from inside as police and other security personnel ushered bewildered guests along corridors to safety.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has said both gunmen involved in the attack were killed, although an eye witness had previously said there was at least one additional attacker.
The lone American killed in Friday’s terrorist attack in Mali was a native of western MA.
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The 20 dead included 18 hotel guests and two Malian gendarmes, interior minister Salif Traore said at a press conference, crediting the response of Malian forces for limiting the number of fatalities caused by gunmen who were “determined to die”.
