American Citizen Among Those Killed in Terror Attack on Mali Hotel, State

Islamic extremists armed with guns and grenades stormed the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako yesterday morning.

At least 27 people were reported dead on Friday after Islamist gunmen stormed a Mali hotel with scores of people inside, many of them foreigners.

France’s defense minister told French television that Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a longtime Qaida member, was “likely behind” the attack in Mali.

“Once again, terrorists want to make their barbaric presence felt everywhere, where they can kill, where they can massacre”.

President Barack Obama said he was monitoring the situation.

It said the attack was retaliation for government aggression in northern Mali, Al Akhbar reported. He said two militants also died.

In a statement released by his spokesperson, Ban expressed his condolences to the government of Mali and the bereaved families, while wishing a speedy recovery to the wounded victims of this attack. The were identified as Zhou Tianxiang, general manager for the corporation’s worldwide group; Wang Xuanshang, a deputy general manager of the global group; and Chang Xuehui, general manager of the group’s West Africa division.

Though Traore had earlier said as many as 10 attackers were involved, he said Friday night that there may have been only two gunmen, both of whom were killed. They included visitors from France, Belgium, Germany, China, India, Canada, Ivory Coast and Turkey.

“It was more like a real terrorist attack”, said United Nations Mission spokesman Olivier Salgado.

It was not immediately clear which Muslim extremist groups might be behind the attack, which unfolded one week after the attacks on Paris that killed 129 people.

United Nations officials said at least 19 people had been killed, as well as two or three attackers.

Within hours, local TV images showed heavily armed troops in what appeared to be a lobby area, apparently led by a white officer. The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said three of 10 Chinese tourists caught inside had been rescued.

Malian special forces were freeing hostages “floor by floor”, Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore told The Associated Press. All USA citizens should shelter in place.

An American citizen was killed in Friday’s deadly terror attack on a Mali hotel, a senior State Department official confirmed.

The day-long siege was ultimately ended by Malian, USA and French security forces.

A spokesman for the service who was not authorized to be publicly named said they are heading Friday from two different units of special police forces trained for emergency situations.

Monique Kouame Affoue Ekonde, from Ivory Coast, said she and six other people, including a Turkish woman, were escorted out by security forces as the gunmen rushed “toward the fifth or sixth floor”. The official spoke anonymously in line with presidency policy.

A top official at the French presidency said French citizens were in the hotel but could not give more. All are employees of Chinese companies working in Mali. A handful of jihadi groups seized the northern half of Mali – a former French colony – in 2012 and were ousted from cities and towns by a French military intervention.

The group, known as the Mourabitounes, was formed in 2013 after Belmoktar left al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and joined with a Malian militant group.

“I think this attack has been perpetrated by negative forces, terrorists, who do not want to see peace in Mali”, Hamdi said. They were driven out by a French-led military operation, but sporadic violence has continued in Mali’s central belt on the southern reaches of the Sahara, and in Bamako.