3 dead after gunmen attack, take hostages at hotel in Mali

The hotel has 190 rooms and was 90 percent full when the siege started, according to the Mirror.

A Turkish official said three of six Turkish Airlines staff who had been in the hotel had managed to flee. A body lay under a brown blanket at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

According to the Minister of Internal Security, Colonel Salif Traor, the gunmen burst through the security barriers at 7am and opened fire shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is great” in Arabic.

The Indian hostages were reportedly working in the hotel on contract for an Indian wholesaler and manpower provider named Dev Bolani. Dieudonné was training officials from Mali’s Parliament.

Three people were killed and over 100 people were taken hostage at an global hotel in Mali, West Africa, BBC News reports. United States Special Forces have swarmed the hotel, and the nation of France is providing vital logistical help in the operation.

“I heard them say in English “Did you load it?’, “Let’s go”, Sékouba ‘Bambino” Diabate told Reuters.

A terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack, Israel’s Channel 2 television reported Friday afternoon. Defense officials had said previously that 12 to 15 Americans were believed to be at the hotel when the gunmen arrived.

Speaking in Zambia, where he is partway through a four-day tour of several African countries, Steinmeier confirmed the release of the two hostages.

The ordeal began at around 7.00 a.m. when two men carrying AK-47s reached the hotel in a vehicle or vehicles with diplomatic plates, said Olivier Saldago, a spokesman for the UN Mission in Mali.

Malian troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Friday November 20, 2015. “The whole of the Air France team is now in a safe place”, an Air France statement said.

As the drama in Bamako was unfolding, European Union ministers agreed at an emergency meeting in Brussels to tighten border controls after the Paris massacre which was orchestrated by a jihadist who had travelled between Syria and France.

National broadcaster ORTM, citing security officials, said 18 bodies already had been at the hotel and that no more hostages were being held.

The hotel chain said earlier two gunmen had “locked in” 140 guests and 30 employees at the hotel, but Malian security forces said there were around ten gunmen involved in the hotel attack.

“We were determined to give them no time to booby trap the hotel and launched the assault within hours of the attack”, he said, explaining that quick action prevented more casualties.