Mali Attackers Threaten global Involvement

The recording from the Al-Mourabitoun (The Sentinels) group named the gunmen as Abdel Hakim Al-Ansari and Moadh Al-Ansari, Al-Akhbar said in an article posted online Sunday.

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.

Chief prosecutor Boubacar Sidiki Samake, heading the investigation, said authorities had recovered mobile phones and machine pistols from the bodies of the two militants that will help them understand how the attack was conceived.

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”.

At least 19 people, including 13 foreigners, were killed when armed jihadists attacked the Radisson Blue hotel in Bomako on Friday.

But two days after the attack, little more has been revealed on the identity of the attackers.

Twenty-one hostages, including six Russians, three Chinese, an American and a Belgian, were killed in the attack, which was claimed by an al Qaeda-linked Malian jihadist group Al-Murabitoun.

The Massina Liberation Front, blamed for previous violence in southern Mali, on Sunday (Monday NZT) became the third group to claim responsibility for the hotel attack. It has close ties with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, and it was excluded from the peace negotiations between the government and northern rebel groups.

According to reports earlier today, Islamic extremists who carried out the attack are claimed to have been hunting Air France staff. The incident came after the extremist fighters, who had staged a military coup in Bamako, were dispersed and driven out of towns by a 2013 French-led military offensive.

The Liberian President then prayed that the Almighty Allah will grant President Keita and the People of Mali strength, courage and fortitude as they go through this hard period of national mourning.

“We are aware that the country is in crisis, and we must stand with the victims’ families”, said Makan Kone, a spokesman for Keita, adding that the ceremony was “to show our pain for the death of 19 people”.