Mali’s gruelling hostage situation: Before and after

An African Jihadist group affiliated with al Qaida has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali which claimed several lives. 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 […]

An African Jihadist group affiliated with al Qaida has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali which claimed several lives.
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.
Malian commandos stormed the luxury hotel in Bamako after the gunmen took 170 people including many foreigners hostage in the capital of the former French colony, which has been battling rebels allied to al Qaeda for several years.
Dozens of people were reported to have escaped or been freed, but at least three were dead. A security source said the gunmen had dug in on the seventh floor of the hotel as special forces advanced on them.
Minister of Internal Security Colonel Salif Traoré said three people were killed and two wounded by the gunmen, who burst through security at the hotel entrance at 7 a.m (0700 GMT), spraying the area with gunfire and shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is great” in Arabic.
Occasional bursts of gunfire were heard as the assailants went through the seven-floor building, room-by-room and floor-by-floor, one senior security source and a witness said.
State television said 80 hostages had left the building by midday, but an hour later the hotel’s website said 124 guests and 13 staff were still inside.
Some people were freed by the attackers after showing they could recite verses from the Koran, while others were brought out by security forces or managed to escape under their own steam.
Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita cut short a trip to a regional summit in Chad to return to Bamako, his office said. French President Francois Hollande said France would “use all the means available to us on the ground to free the hostages”.
A U.S. defense official in Washington said about 25 U.S. military personnel were in Bamako at the time of the incident, and were helping to move civilians to safety.
France dispatched 50 elite counter-terrorism officers to Bamako immediately. Paris has troops in Mali helping to fight Islamists, but they are based in the desert city of Gao, 950 km away.