Two militant groups say jointly responsible for Mali attack

African Jihadist group Al-Murabitoun has claimed responsibility for an attack in Mali’s capital Bamako, in which more than 100 hostages were held by gunmen at a luxury hotel.

As AQIM, Ansar Al-Din and Belmoktar’s fighters scattered after the French intervention, other rebels relocated or simply returned home to bide their time.

“Al Mourabitoun is a mixture of fundamentalists and bandits, who traffic weapons and drugs to finance themselves”, he said. ISIS just isn’t believed to be behind the attack, a senior USA intelligence officer told NBC News source.

The United States has no indication that Islamic State or Boko Haram militants were involved in the attack, the source said.

While the group is reportedly an African Jihadist organization with ties to Al Qaeda, witnesses inside the hotel today claimed that Islamic radicals were shouting “Allahu Akbar” when they stormed the hotel.

Al Mourabitoun has staged several attacks in Mali and the region, but Belmokhtar has had a troubled relationship with Al-Qaida.

Al Mourabitoun “is an offshoot of Al-Qaida, whose roots go back to the Algerian insurgency of the 1990s…”

A deadly hostage crisis at a hotel in Mali is over after armed Islamic terrorists killed at least 19 people, including one American.

Al-Murabitoun has already claimed responsibility for the first attack on Westerners in the Malian capital on March 7.

Militants linked to Belmokhtar stormed a major gas plant in Algeria’s Sahara desert in January 2013 and killed 40 employees in a four-day siege and have been blamed for several kidnappings of foreigners.

Reports of gunfire surfaced Friday morning on social media, though Lt. Col. Diarran Kone, an adviser with Mali’s defense ministry, says it is not yet clear what has happened.