Security sources said the gunmen were jihadists who had entered the hotel compound at around 0700 GMT (2000 AEDT) in a auto that had diplomatic plates.
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Assailants took 170 hostages inside the hotel earlier on Friday. They included visitors from France, Belgium, Germany, China, India, Canada, Ivory Coast and Turkey. Another terrorist attack was carried out on a restaurant in Bamako in March.
They opened fire on security guards before raiding the building and taking more than 150 people hostage.
Seven people were injured, and 126 people were safely evacuated.
“I think they are still there”.
United States special forces helped in the rescue of at least six Americans, a military spokesman told reporters in Washington. USA and French special forces assisted with the response.
UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said three Britons who had been in the hotel were safe. US officials were trying to verify the location of all American citizens in Mali.
Keita thanked Malian and French security forces for their role in ending the siege.
Chinese officials say the country faces a severe threat from Islamist separatists in its western Xinjiang region, where violence has left hundreds dead over the past three years.
Reflecting the chaos surrounding the siege, various death tolls were reported during the day.
French troops, rear, inside the Radisson Blu hotel after an attack by gunmen on the hotel in Bamako, Mali, Friday, November 20, 2015.
The exact number of attackers remains unknown, with the figures ranging between two and thirteen.
Chinese leaders attached great importance to the incident, Hong said, adding Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Mali had launched emergency-response mechanism immediately and conducted rescue operations.
Islamist groups have since continued to wage attacks in the country.
Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati, a representative of the Coordination of Azawad Movements and a signatory to the accord, said Sunday that although Mali’s Islamic extremist groups were divided they all wanted to doom the peace process.
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Following a military coup in 2012, Islamic extremists took control of northern Mali, prompting a French-led military intervention the following year.
