French special forces leaving the Radisson Blu hotel after quelling the a militant attack.
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The Radisson attack was claimed by Al-Mourabitoun (The Sentinels), an extremist group formed by notorious Algerian militant Moktar Belmoktar, in a statement Friday that said it was carried out in cooperation with al-Qaida’s “Sahara Emirate”.
The attack, which saw 170 guests and staff taken hostage, has already been claimed by The al Qaeda-linked group Al Murabitoun.
Video footage shows Malian security forces storming the Bamako hotel to end a siege by gunmen in which 19 people died.
The group said Sunday there were only two attackers and suggested they were Malian.
Among the dead in the Radisson attack were a 41-year-old American development worker, six Russian plane crew from a cargo company, and three senior executives from the powerful state-owned China Railway Construction Corp., officials said.
“They are suspects – people suspected of having links with the two terrorists (who attacked the hotel)”, a source close to the West African state’s security ministry told Reuters.
One of the rescued hostages, celebrated Guinean singer Sékouba “Bambino” Diabate, said he had overheard two of the assailants speaking English as they searched an adjacent room.
The decision to release the photos came a day after the Islamic extremist group that first claimed responsibility for the attack purported to identify the gunmen in an audio recording.
“People of different nationalities and religions become its victims, and it is possible to withstand this threat only through the broadest worldwide cooperation”, Putin said.
But a jihadist group from central Mali, the Macina Liberation Front (LWF), also claimed the attack in a statement sent to AFP Sunday, saying it was carried out by a squad of five, including “three who came out safe and sound”.
University of Bamako professor Issa N’Diaye says it is a game of power between armed groups.
Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Saturday declared a 10-day state of emergency in the country.
“I said something like, ‘There is something going on and I just want you to know that I love you, ‘” Fazekas said. The shooters are said to have ties to al-Qaeda.
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The Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation launched the following year, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless.
