13 dead, four freed in Mali hotel siege

Malian security forces yesterday stormed a hotel used by United Nations staff and freed four hostages held there by suspected Islamist militants during a almost 24-hour siege in which 12 people died.

Three attackers were also killed, he said.

Islamic extremists began the assault Friday on the Lodge Byblos in Sevare, about 375 miles northeast of the capital, Bamako.

The federal government stated Friday that forces detained seven suspected militants.

Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Diarran Kone said on Friday that five soldiers and two militants had been killed during the stand-off.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said a total of four Ukrainian citizens had been taken hostage at the hotel and at least one was killed.

He did not give the nationalities of the freed hostages or the dead.

Also staying at the hotel were French, South African and Ukrainian guests.

Mali’s government and the UN mission in Mali both condemned the attack.

The US issued a statement that “strongly condemns” the attack, branding it “deplorable”.

The attack was the third in Mali in just a week as it battles a resurgence in jihadist violence two years after a French-led offensive routed Islamist groups from their northern strongholds.

Witnesses described seeing a “white man” lying dead in the street and hearing gunfire coming from inside the hotel as well as spotting smoke billowing from it. “The area is surrounded by soldiers who told us to return to our homes”, a resident told the Associated Press.

The siege was ended after government troops stormed the building early Saturday.

In March, Islamist gunmen opened fire, accompanied by a grenade attack on a busy restaurant in Bamako which killed five people. In June, three troopers were murdered by gunmen in a town close to the Mauritania edge.

The insurgents have continued to mount sporadic attacks from their bases in the desert, mainly in the north. But the attacks have spread since the beginning of the year to the center of the country and to the south near the borders with Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. The extremist group Ansar Dine said it was behind those attacks.

Mali’s special forces were transported to Sevare from Bamako early Saturday. Kgwete declined to disclose the id of the lifeless South African.

Two French men were kidnapped from their hotel in northeastern Mali in November 2011.