Malian forces staged a rescue mission to free hostages held by gunmen at the hotel in Bamako, where the gunmen took 170 people hostage for around nine hours.
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It called three days of mourning for the victims, who included three Chinese, an American and a Belgian.
It is thought that at least two attackers were killed in the shoot-out after Malian and French special forces stormed the worldwide hotel but as many as 10 individuals were believed to have attacked the compound on Friday.
Friday’s assault on the Radisson Blu hotel was the latest in a series of deadly raids this year on high-profile targets in Mali, which has battled Islamist rebels based in its desert north for years.
“I have assured Malian President Ibrahim Keita that France is available to offer the necessary support to the forces of his country”, he had said shortly after the incident.
Friday’s attack came a week after Islamic State followers exploded devices and fired into cafes and a concert venue in Paris, killing 129 people.
US President Barack Obama and his Russian and Chinese counterparts Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping all condemned the attack. As people ran for their lives near the hotel along the dirt road, soldiers pointed the way to safety.
Northern Mali has been unstable since it fell to Islamic extremists and Tuareg rebels following a military coup in 2012.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon decried the “horrific terrorist attack” and said the violence was aimed at derailing the implementation of a June peace agreement between rival factions.
At least six Americans were also rescued after two U.S. special forces troops swooped in to assist Malian forces.
The jihadist is also accused of being the ring-leader of an attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013, in which around 40 mostly Western hostages were killed.
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A French official said that French citizens were in the hotel but could not give any more information. Since then, Mali has seen periodic attacks such as the one in March this year, where armed assailants shot five people at a popular Bamako restaurant.
