A dozen USA citizens rescued after Mali hotel attack

MALIAN troops stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in the capital Bamako yesterday after Islamists attacked with grenades, killing three people and taking 170 hostages.

US President Barack Obama says the “barbarity” shown by Islamic extremists at the hotel was yet another reminder that the “scourge of terrorism” threatens many nations and that the attack “only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge”.

“Everything is being done to follow the tracks” of the suspects, the source said, declining to give further details to avoid compromising the investigation.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita also declared a three-day period of national mourning.

Troops responded quickly to the morning assault, freeing hostages “floor by floor” until, by 5pm, Malian TV reported that no more hostages were being held.

Automatic weapons could be heard firing from the 190-room hotel, which has been cordoned off by security.

Al-Murabitoun, headed by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was founded in 2013 and presents itself as the West African branch of Al-Qaeda.

“They now have no more hostages in their hands and forces are in the process of tracking them down”, AFP quoted Security Minister Traore as saying at a press conference.

French special forces from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso neighbor, were inside the hotel.

The siege at the Radisson Blu in Bamako was said to be ongoing on Friday afternoon as security forces mounted an operation “floor by floor” to retake the building.

“After the attack happened, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Mali immediately initiated an emergency response and no efforts were spared in the attempt of rescuing the hostages”, said Hong.

Besides police and Malian military, special forces of the gendarmerie were deployed, as well as members of Minusma and the French force barkhane, with support from United States forces.

There were reportedly various foreign nationals in the hotel, including 12 Air France staff, who Air France says have been freed.

Islamic extremists previously took control of northern Mali in 2012 and prompted a France-led military intervention.