However, one security source in Mali told the BBC officials believed that the two dead gunmen had been speaking English during the attack.
Advertisement
His government increased security at strategic points around Bamako at the start of a declared 10-day state of emergency.
Russian Federation and China have publicly condemned the attack in Mali. “Paris isn’t, Geneva isn’t, NY isn’t, Moscow isn’t”. In a final note, Keita said simply: “terrorism will not win”.
Zhou Tianxiang and Wang Xuanshang, general manager and deputy general manager of the company’s global division, and Chang Xuehui, general manager of its West Africa division, were killed, the statement said.
On Tuesday, after officials concluded that the Russian airliner had been brought down by a bomb, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to hunt down the militants responsible for planning the attack.
No confirmation was so far available from Israel’s foreign ministry. A spokesman told al-Jazeera two Malian gunmen had carried out the attack.
More than 130 hotel guests and staff were freed when Malian special forces, French special forces and off-duty United States servicemen stormed the hotel on Friday to break the siege.
Mali has been dealing with Islamist extremists for many years. “I can not call this even an export of ideology as it is an export of havoc”. “No nation, no human life deserves such criminal barbarity”, said Oumar Fomba, a teacher. But to defeat terrorism in the long term it will also need secure borders, good governance and more economic opportunities for young Malians.
US President Barack Obama, in speech in Kuala Lumpur, extended his “deepest condolences” to the families of those killed in Mali.
“Once again, this barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge”, he said.
“We are part of the municipal operation in Mali”. Nothing changes in Mali.
Former colonial power France has sent a team of elite investigators to assist the probe.
Al-Mourabitoun was founded by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian who had left AQIM – and who, as NPR’s Tom Bowman reports, “was believed killed in a US airstrike back in June”.
Advertisement
Mali has been torn apart by unrest since the north fell under the control of extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012. They were driven out by a French-led military operation, but sporadic violence has continued in Mali’s central belt on the southern reaches of the Sahara, and in Bamako. But Mali has faced repeated attacks from militants affiliated with al-Qaeda and other factions.
