Mali Radisson hotel attack is claimed by SECOND jihadi group

State media broadcast photos Monday of the two slain attackers of a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital, appealing for anyone who knew them to come forward with information about the gunmen.

The pictures aired on state television were the first indication that authorities were seeking accomplices to Friday’s attack on the Radisson Blu hotel that killed 20 people and ended when commandos stormed the building and killed two gunmen.

According to AFP, MLF said the attack was carried out by a five-man team, including “three who came out safe and sound”.

Six Russians, three Chinese, two Belgians, an American, an Israeli, a Senegalese and a member of the Malian special forces were among those killed in the attack.

On Sunday, the Massina Liberation Front, which has been blamed for previous attacks in southern Mali, became the third group to claim responsibility for the siege.

But, said security analyst Chris Chivvis of the RAND Corporation, “there is a big difference between a hotel in downtown Bamako – a country which has been troubled by jihadist groups for several years – and a hotel in downtown Atlanta”.

Jihadist group Al Mourabitoun and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed they had carried out the attack in a joint operation against the hotel, a favourite of foreign businessmen and diplomats.

France, Belgium, Canada and america are offering technical help with the investigation, he added.

The news comes on the beginning of a three day period of national mourning for the victims which is also being respected in neighbouring Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea.

They were named as Abdel Hakim al-Ansari and Moadh al-Ansari. As half of a package deal of emergency measures, police searched automobiles on Monday in Bamako whereas a D.I. official stated troops would assist with patrols in a single day.

The assault on the hotel, catering to the country’s worldwide elite, has fuelled security concerns in Bamako which had not witnessed the same violence as northern Mali following an ethnic Taureg rebellion in 2012 which was then hijacked by the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Dine.

Seventeen people were killed in the August attack on that hotel, which frequented was by staff with the United Nations mission in Mali. “On a regional degree we’d like reforms”, stated Boni Yayi, including that governments wanted to think about “the reinforcement of our intelligence capacities and border administration”.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall, chairman of West Africa’s ECOWAS, said on Sunday that the regional body will discuss possible measures to restrict women wearing burqas in order to enhance regional security.