BAMAKO (Web Desk) – Gunmen who stormed a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital Friday and seized more than 100 guests and staff no longer have any hostages after a rescue operation by special forces, the government said.
“They currently have no more hostages in their hands and forces are in the process of tracking them down,” security minister Salif Traore told a news conference following a stand-off of several hours at Bamako’s Radisson Blu hotel, Deccan Chronical reported.
As many as 18 bodies were found as unidentified number of gunmen made an early morning raid at the hotel in Mali’s capital town and took 140 guests and 30 staff hostage in a hail of automatic gunfire.
The incident came a week after the deadly terror attack in Paris. Though there was no direct link between the two incidents, Mali has been at the centre of French military operations against Islamists in North Africa.
An African Jihadist group affiliated with al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack and hostage- taking at the hote.
Al-Mourabitoun, a group based in northern Mali and made up mostly of Tuaregs and Arabs, posted a message on Twitter saying it was behind the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel, where hostages are sti…
still being held.
The claim could not immediately be verified.
