The Rezidor Hotel Group, the US-based parent company of Radisson Blu, said two people had taken a total of 170 people hostage.
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Al-Murabitoun, headed by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was founded in 2013 and presents itself as the West African branch of Al-Qaeda. The company said it was “aware of the hostage-taking that is ongoing at the property today, 20th November 2015”.
An American citizen was among the victims, according to U.S. officials. Automatic weapons fire was heard outside the 190-room hotel in the city centre, with the ministry spokesman saying at least three hostages had been killed.
A few hotel employees reportedly escaped through emergency exits. His group has not pledged allegiance to Islamic State, as Nigerian militant group Boko Haram did in March. They were largely driven out by French forces.
The militants were scattered by a French offensive in January 2013 but insurgents have continued sporadic attacks despite the presence of a few 3,000 French troops in the region and several thousand United Nations peacekeepers in Mali.
French President Francois Hollande said he had assured Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita that France “is available to offer the necessary support to the forces of his country”.
US military officials said he was targeted, only for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to deny four days later that he was dead.
The siege began when assailants shouting “God is great!” in Arabic burst into the complex and opened fire on the hotel guards. It remains unclear if the Algerian, a target of Western airstrikes, is still alive.
The attackers entered the building and went up to a higher floor, hotel security sources said.
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An extremist group led by former al-Qaida commander Moktar Belmoktar claimed responsibility for the attack in the former French colony, and many in France saw it as a new assault on their country’s interests a week after the Paris attacks. Clashes between rebels and the army persist in a few places.
