Malian security forces are hunting “more than three” suspects after a brazen assault on the Radisson Blu hotel in the capital that killed 20 people, a lot of them guests. He said there was no question of a Paris-like repeat situation post a terror strike.
Advertisement
Security forces in Mali say there were two attackers, however hostages described seeing at least eight.
Just as President Obama claimed ISIS had been contained nine hours before the attacks on Paris, so too Secretary of State John Kerry said al Qaeda was neutralized just before the massacre in Mali.
Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced the mourning period on Saturday, a day after gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel, which is popular with travelers and tourists, and opened fire.
The foreign ministry, which has no diplomatic ties with Mali, could not immediately confirm Shmuel Benalal’s death, but noted that another Israeli had escaped the attack unharmed.
Gunmen went on the rampage from the early morning, shooting in the corridors and taking 170 guests and staff hostage.
Northern Mali has been unstable since it fell to Tuareg separatists and Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012. U.S. forces were also involved in helping to free the hostages.
“The attack was targeting the peace agreement”, said Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati, a representative of the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA).
A Malian intelligence agent said a total of 13 foreigners were killed, including six Russians, three Chinese, two Belgians, an American and a Senegalese.
In an audio recording broadcast by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, Belmokhtar’s group claimed responsibility.
Those who died “were shot by gunmen in the restaurant literally in the first minutes of the terrorist attack on the hotel”, the ministry said.
The militant is said to be the leader of an attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013, in which 38 mostly Western hostages were killed.
Advertisement
Investigators were combing through the hotel and recovered several items which could help the enquiry, one source said. The bloodshed in Mali, a former French colony, was the latest sign of the problems faced by French troops and United Nations peacekeepers in restoring security in a West African state that has battled rebels and militants in its desert north for years.
