Mali hotel siege ends with at least 21 dead

Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned on Saturday the “cruel and savage”attack by Islamist militants on a hotel in Mali’s capital that killed 19 people including three executives from a Chinese railway company”. He said there was no question of a Paris-like repeat situation post a terror strike.

He was in Mali as a consultant to the government on education, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The president assured that the siege was over and announced a 10-day state of emergency, which began Friday night.

The official said 12 bodies were found in the basement of the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, with another 15 bodies discovered on the second floor. It was reported that as the siege dragged on, hostages started to trickle as security forces worked to secure the hotel floor by floor.

State television said 80 hostages had been freed but the French newspaper Le Monde quoted the Malian security ministry as saying at least three people had been killed in the initial attack.

Friday’s assault, claimed by an Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Al-Murabitoun group led by notorious one- eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, ended after Malian and global troops stormed the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako.

Security sources said the gunmen were jihadists who had entered the hotel compound at around 0700 GMT (2000 AEDT) in a vehicle that had diplomatic plates.

The lone American killed in Friday’s terrorist attack in Mali was a native of western MA.

A few hostages succeeded in escaping by their own means while the majority of them were rescued by the special forces.

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita cut short a visit into a regional peak in Chad.

Twenty seven people were last night confirmed dead after yesterday’s attack on the Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital.

The claim by a Saharan jihadist group allied to al-Qaeda that they were behind the attack is a reminder that the country still faces an insurgency, says the BBC’s Frank Gardner. While French forces pushed the militants out of most of those strongholds in 2013, the government is struggling to regain authority there.