Mali hotel attack: Hunt for three suspects

Malian special forces stormed a luxury hotel in Bamako on Friday after Islamist gunmen took 170 people including many foreigners hostage in the capital of the former French colony, which has been battling rebels allied to al-Qaida for several years.

The government has declared a state of emergency after the bloody nine-hour hostage-taking at the Radisson Blu hotel in the capital Bamako on Friday, exactly a week after the Paris massacre.

Earlier on Saturday, the head of a hospital in Mali told Russian television channel LifeNews that at least two Russian citizens had been killed in the attack. Seven people, including three local policemen, were wounded.

HABIBOU KOUYATE/AFP/Getty Images Malian security forces evacuate a man from an area surrounding the Radisson Blu hotel. Among those killed were 18 civilians, a policeman and the attackers, he said. An American citizen was also among the dead, the U.S. State Department said. “We hope all the relevant bodies are working to bring him back to us as soon as possible”, the family said in a statement, according to Channel 2.

On Tuesday, after officials concluded that the Russian airliner had been brought down by a bomb, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to hunt down the militants responsible for planning the attack.

Al Mourabitoun said the attack was carried out in retaliation for government aggression in northern Mali, Al Akhbar reported.

Malian Army Major Modibo Nama Traore told the AP Sunday that security forces are looking for “more than three” people connected to the attacks. “But it seems like an operation that could not have been done without help”. Other sources put the death toll at 27, not counting the assailants.

A jihadist group, known as the Mourabitounes, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it wanted its fighters freed from Malian prisons and for attacks in the North to stop.

The assault, which ended when Malian and worldwide troops stormed the hotel, left 19 people dead as well as two attackers, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on Saturday. The statement also said, Zhou Tianxiang and Wang Xuanshang, general manager and deputy general manager of the company’s worldwide division, and Chang Xuehui, general manager of its West Africa division, were killed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also condemned the “cruel and savage” attack, and vowed to boost security work “outside China’s borders” against terrorism.