Mali hotel attack: Three days of national mourning begin

A Malian intelligence agent said that a total of 13 foreigners were killed, including six Russians, three Chinese, two Belgians, an American and a Senegalese.

Traore said 126 people had been escorted to safety and at least one guest reported the attackers instructed him to recite the Koran as proof of his Muslim faith before he was allowed to leave.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita vowed in a televised speech that “terror will not win” and described the attackers as having “decided to break with humanity”. We have offices from the field engineers regiment and from the Airforce as part of the municipal operation in Mali but they were nowhere near the hotel so far as we know, the information we have to date, we do not have Ghanaian victims.

He has also that decreed three days of national mourning be observed.

Malian soldiers man a checkpoint on the Gao road outside Sevare, some 385 miles north of Mali’s capital Bamako, Jan. 27, 2013.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the attack, calling for a global collective cooperation to battle terrorism.

“Once again, this barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge”, he said.

Northern Mali has been unstable since it fell to Tuareg separatists and Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012.

The ministry on Saturday confirmed that all the six people are employees of the Volga-Dnepr Airlines, while another six Russians were rescued by Mali security services. “The hotel that was attacked is being combed through carefully”, a statement on state television said.

“The hostage-taking is over”.

Malian special forces assisted by US and French forces fought their way through the hotel, finally ending the siege by killing at least two of the gunmen.

The terrorists who claimed responsibility for the attack had previous connections to al-Qaeda.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday his country’s efforts in Mali have not been in vain. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said three of its citizens were among the dead.

The palatial, 190-room Radisson, regarded as one of West Africa’s best hotels, attracts entrepreneurs, tourists and government officials from across the world with its luxury spa, outdoor pool and conference suites.