Mali state television shows hotel attackers

Mali state television showed images on Monday of two men, apparently dead, that it said were the “authors” of an attack by militants on a luxury hotel in the capital Bamako and appealed for information as to their identity.

The number of attackers is also disputed.

A United Nations employee was killed Tuesday in an attack on a peacekeeping convoy in northern Mali, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. Another militant group claims there were five, three of whom escaped.

Officials say it is likely one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar who leads the group was “likely” to have planned the massacre.

“The jihadis are in different groups but their goal is the same, and that’s to hinder implementation of the peace accord”, Sidati said. Malian and worldwide troops stormed the Radisson Blu hotel to free guests and staff being held hostage. Al-Mourabitoun has links to al-Qaida, and the group’s first statement Friday described collaboration with al-Qaida’s “Sahara Emirate”.

Responding to reports quoting witnesses that the hotel attackers spoke English, Keita said: “My intelligence is working on this….”

The Liberian leader then prayed the Almighty God will grant President Keita and the people of Mali the strength, courage and fortitude as they go through this hard period of national mourning, the statement concluded.

Benin’s President Thomas Yayi Boni said after visiting the Radisson Blu hotel, where the killings took place, that the “odious attack” was aimed at “frightening off global investors”. “Macina” is named for a 19th-century Islamic empire that reigned in what is present-day Mali, according to the Miami Herald.

Little is known about the affiliations of Macina Liberation Front, though it has been credited for a series of attacks on Malian troops and civilians over 2015. The MLF claimed the attack as a joint operation with Ansar Dine, another Malian jihadist movement in the north. Its fighters are predominantly drawn from Ag Ghali’s Kel Iforas clan and had a reputation for brutality in 2012, when the group controlled the region before the January 2013 French military operation. But major worldwide hotel chains and other commercial enterprises that operate potential high-profile “soft targets” are beginning to address heightened security concerns, said Tricia Bacon, an expert on jihadist groups and counterterrorism at American University.

In a recording broadcast by Al-Jazeera, a spokesman identified them as Abdelhakim al-Ansari and Moez al-Ansari, with the term “al-Ansari” indicating they were indigenous jihadists.