The prosecutor in charge of investigating last week’s deadly assault on a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital urged residents to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior, warning of heightened security threats as officials struggled to piece together details of how the attack was plotted and executed.
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“Two suspects linked to the attack last week at the Radisson hotel have just been arrested and they are being interrogated”, one of the sources said.
The siege ended hours later when Malian commandos stormed the hotel and freed 170 hostages. Twenty people were killed, along with the attackers, and nine people were wounded.
Amadou Sangho, a spokesperson for the ministry, confirmed the arrests on Thursday, but did not reveal the identities and the alleged roles of the suspects in the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel.
People carry the remains of a person that was slain by gunmen during the recent attacks on the Radisson Blu hotel, during a funeral in Bamako, Mali, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015.
On Monday, state television broadcast the photos of two gunmen killed in the attack and urged anyone with information to come forward.
Security Minister Salif Traore said on Thursday that there were only two attackers armed with AK-47 assault rifles. After shooting four of the five guards, killing one, they fired wildly in the lobby and breakfast dining area before heading to the hotel’s upper floors.
The attack was asserted by the Al-Murabitoun bunch, an Al-Qaeda offshoot drove by famous one-peered toward Algerian activist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
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Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a splinter group al Mourabitoun and the Massina Liberation Front have all claimed responsibility for the attack.
