Samake said the gunmen were spotted to the west of the Radisson Blu hotel at 6 a.m. Friday morning, about an hour before the attack began, sitting with two suitcases containing the Kalashnikov assault rifles they used in the attack.
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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 tells AFP.
The statement said the arrests “would shed more light on the motivations of the perpetrators of the sordid terrorist attack” at the Radisson Blu hotel on November 20.
The gunmen were killed at the scene, and on Monday state media broadcast their photos, asking anyone with information about them to come forward.
Two gunmen held 170 guests and staff hostage until security forces stormed the hotel.
One of them had been regularly in touch since August, while another sent telephone credit to an attacker, he said.
At least 20 people were killed, including an American, a United Nations spokesman said.
Two days later, another jihadist group from central Mali, the Macina Liberation Front (LWF), also claimed responsibility, saying it was carried out by a squad of five, including “three who came out safe and sound”.
“It’s only after questioning that we will find out if the second suspect sells phone credit or is an accomplice”, said the source, requesting anonymity.
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Mali authorities detained two individuals on Thursday suspected of connections to an assault on a high-end resort the security ministry said. France had intervened militarily in Mali in 2013 to help restore governmental control following a partial take-over of the country by Islamist group Ansar Dine.
