One witness said the gunmen targeted Bamako’s Nord-Sud Hotel, which the European Union had converted into a facility where almost 600 of its military personnel are deployed.
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They said: “The attackers tried to force through the entry and the guards posed in front of the entrance opened fire”. Armed forces killed at least one man in the latest string of attacks on Western interests in the region.
Sergeant Baba Dembele from the anti-terrorism unit in Bamako told an Associated Press reporter at the scene Monday night that it was believed some attackers had entered the luxury hotel where the mission is headquartered.
No EU personnel were hurt in the attack, Agence France Presse reports.
While the attack was underway, the U.S. Embassy in Mali, located in the area, warned Americans to stay indoors. One attacker was killed. “We are verifying the sack he was carrying, which could contain explosives”, Colonel Salif Traor said on state television.
It was not immediately known how many carried out the attack. The United Nations also established a peacekeeping mission to secure the government enough to continue a peace process.
However, violence is again on the rise. Last November an al Qaeda affiliate claimed an attack on a Bamako Hotel in which dozens of people died.
A similar assault on a hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, followed in January.
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This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
