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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Matthew Weaver and Nadia Khomami

Mali hotel attack: officials say hostage situation over – as it happened

Malian security forces rescue hostages from Bamako hotel – video

A UN mission spokesman says two attackers in the hotel siege have been killed but he cannot yet confirm that operation is over. Security forces are going from room to room checking for more casualties.

We are going to wrap up the blog for today. You can read our latest news story here.

Updated

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has condemned the attack. A spokesman told reporters:

The secretary general condemns the horrific terrorist attacks at the Radisson Hotel in Bamako, which killed an unknown number of civilians and injured many more.”

A UN official earlier told Reuters that peacekeepers had seen 27 bodies in the hotel. Malian security sources told AFP that at least 22 hostages and two gunmen had been killed.

Updated

Reuters is reporting that a security ministry spokesman said Mali special forces are still trying to dislodge Islamist gunmen from the upper floors of the hotel.

A group of Islamist gunmen involved in the storming of a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, continued to hold out against security forces on Friday even after the evacuation of all civilians from the building, a security ministry spokesman, Amadou Sanghom, said.

The attackers no longer have hostages. They are dug in in the upper floors. They are alone with the Malian special forces who are trying to dislodge them.

Updated

Al-Mourabitoun’s claim of responsibility on Twitter is, if genuine, the first the group has made using social media. But in all other respects there are good reasons to believe the al-Qaida-affiliated group has the capacity to carry out an attack such as the one on the Bamako hotel.

The group, based in the north of the country, is said to have carried out several attacks in the central and southern areas this year. It claimed responsibility for an attack on a hotel in Sévaré in central Mali in August, in which 13 people were killed, and an attack in Bamako on 7 March in which five people died when a gunman opened fire with a Kalashnikov inside the La Terrasse restaurant, on the roof of the VIP discotheque.

Al-Mourabitoun is led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar – the notorious jihadi believed responsible for the deadly attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013. The US has claimed that Belmokhtar was killed in an American air strike in June, although his fate remains unclear.

It was formed in 2013 out of a merger between Belmokhtar’s battalions and the Mali-based Movement for Monotheism and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao). The merger brought hundreds of largely Malian recruits into the militant group.

Updated

Security forces freed 76 hostages, Malian minister says

The hostage situation at the hotel has ended and security forces have killed the two Islamist gunmen who stormed the building earlier in the day, says Reuters, citing security sources. Police were moving in and out of the hotel, escorting civilians, some of them wounded, a witness said.

Mali’s interior security minister Colonel Salif Traore, speaking on state-run television, said 76 people had been freed by security forces.

Other sources on social media are also reporting that the assault has ended.

Updated

The UN peacekeepers saw 12 bodies in the basement of the hotel and another 15 on the second floor, the UN official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He added that the UN troops were still helping Malian authorities search the hotel.

Updated

27 people killed at hotel, according to reports

An UN official has said that peacekeepers at the hotel saw 27 bodies, and that a search of the building was continuing, according to Reuters.

ABC News’ Martin Cuddihy also tweeted the report.

Updated

AFP has filed more information about the Belgian national who was killed in the Mali hotel siege, and understood to have been a regional assembly official.

A Belgian regional assembly official was among those killed when Islamist gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako on Friday, his employer said.

Geoffrey Dieudonne, an official with the parliament of Belgium’s French-speaking community, had been in Mali for a convention, the parliament said in a statement.

“Mr Dieudonne, with other foreign colleagues, was in Mali to give a seminar for Malian parliamentarians,” the Brussels-based parliament said.

“At this stage the exact circumstances of his tragic death are not yet known.”

Updated

Two gunmen killed in hotel siege, according to Malian military

All remaining hostages at the Malian siege “have been taken under the wing of the civil authorities”, ministerial adviser Amadou Sangho told French television station BFMTV.

He added the operation was undertaken “uniquely” by Malian forces.

Updated

Two people tell how they were rescued by Malian security forces from Islamist gunmen who had held them hostage on Friday in a Radisson hotel in the capital, Bamako.

If al-Mourabitoun, an al-Qaida-linked group, is indeed responsible for the Bamako siege it is a stunning example of how the deep rivalry between al-Qaida, founded in 1987 or 1988, and IS, founded in 2014, is responsible for a wave of violence across much of the Islamic world and, as we found out, last week, beyond.

IS broke away from al-Qaida and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, detest each other.

The world of militancy is riven with splits and doctrinal differences, personal animosities and grudges. There is also fierce competition for recruits, donations and attention.

Security services have long been aware of how violence can escalate when groups divide or fragment and the factions battle for supremacy, each trying to outdo the other. This may well be what has driven the timing of this new operation, the first high-profile such attack by al-Qaida for some time. The group is trying to steal back some of the limelight and dominate the news agenda again, as it once did so often and so effectively.

What appears clear is that the Paris attacks have intensified and accelerated a chaotic, dynamic reordering of alliances and capabilities within the broader landscape of Islamic militancy, meaning that an already hugely complex threat is increasingly difficult for security services to read.

Updated

A Malian official has told BFM TV that there are no more hostages being held at the hotel, according to Reuters. But there are reports on Twitter that hostages still remain on the site.

Mali hotel gunmen 'holding no more hostages'

AFP reports that there are no more hostages being held in the hotel.

AFP is citing a foreign security source who reports that 18 people have been killed in the attack.

A Belgian national is reportedly among the dead.

Here’s a bit more information about al-Mourabitoun, the African jihadist group affiliated with al-Qaida which has claimed responsibility for the Mali hotel attack.

Al-Mourabitoun, based in northern Mali, is made up mostly of Tuaregs and Arabs. It was formed around two years ago and is headed by former al-Qaida fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

The group claimed responsibility for the death of five people last March in an attack on a restaurant in Bamako; a suicide attack on a group of UN peacekeepers in northern Mali in April in which at least three people died; and an attack on a hotel in Sévaré in central Mali in August in which 17 people were killed.

Updated

An unconfirmed report on a local radio station says 15 people were killed in the attack.

Mikado FM cited a civil protection official as a source.

That’s it from me, I’m handing over now to my colleague Nadia Khomami.

Updated

Bret McGurk, Barack Obama’s envoy on countering Islamic State militants, says it is too soon to speculate whether the Mali attack is related to last week’s attacks in Paris.

MSNBC quoted McGurk saying that militant groups in Mali are not particularly connected to Islamic State.

Updated

Al-Qaida linked group claims responsibility

An African jihadist group affiliated with al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for the ongoing attack, according to Reuters.

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.

The claim could not immediately be verified.

Updated

News that there are were at least seven Chinese nationals among the hostages at a Mali hotel will put a spotlight on the country’s response to global terror threats, just days after Isis announced it had executed a Chinese hostage, writes Emma Graham-Harrison.

China, which supported the US “war on terror” from its early days, describes militant extremism as a shared threat at home and abroad. Beijing faces an increasingly violent separatist movement in far western Xinjiang province, may have up to 100 nationals fighting with Isis, and is worried about radical groups in neighbouring countries including Uzbekistan exporting fighters, weapons or ideology across its borders.

In response, the government has stepped up security across the country, and is increasingly active trying to broker peace between the Taliban and government in Afghanistan, which it sees as a cauldron of extremism on its doorstep.

But despite dedicating ever-larger budgets and energy to dealing with separatists at home, top leaders remain wary of any military involvement abroad.

They have noted the cost of Afghan expeditions to both the Soviet Union and later the US and its allies. Sending troops to trouble spots also sits uneasily with official diplomatic rhetoric focused on the country’s “peaceful rise”.

That tentative stance may come under pressure from the country’s outspoken “patriotic youth”, if an increasingly well-travelled middle class gets caught up in more attacks overseas however.

When news emerged that Isis hostage Fan Jinghui, a 50-year-old former teacher from Beijing, had been killed in Syria, many online were quick to question why no rescue had been attempted or to call for a show of strength in response.

“This time, if [the government] still doesn’t deploy soldiers,” wrote one person quoted in Foreign Policy, “it won’t be able to explain itself to its people.” Government censors responded fast to the surge of interest to delete all but the most bland official versions of that news from the heavily controlled domestic internet.

Internet searches for Fan Jinghui were blocked on sites including the Twitter-like Weibo. But a monitoring tool at the University of Hong Kong found that before censorship, top searches including “hostage”, “IS”, “killed” were among the most popular. Just a couple of days after Fan’s death, in an apparent show of government resolve and strength, state media put out a report on a massive counter-terrorism operation that had killed 28 suspects after a two-month manhunt for the men behind a deadly attack on a coal mine.

Updated

Here’s a quick tally of the nationalities of those reportedly freed so far:

  • 20 Indians
  • 12 French
  • Seven Algerians
  • Six Americans
  • Six Turks
  • Four Chinese
  • Two Germans
  • One Guinean

That’s a total of 58 people out of 80 hostages reportedly freed.

Updated

Two Germans freed

Two German citizens have escaped the siege, according to Germany’s foreign ministry.

A small team of US troops have been helping with efforts to rescue hostages, US Africa Command has confirmed.

Six US citizens are among the people who have been recovered from the hotel in Mali, Army Colonel Mark Cheadle told Reuters.

Updated

French special forces have now arrived at the hotel, AFP reports, citing the French defence ministry.

A US military spokesman said six US citizens were among those “recovered” in the hotel, according to Reuters.

Updated

20 Indians evacuated

As Malian broadcaster ORTM shows more pictures of hostages being freed, India’s foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup has announced that all 20 Indian citizens staying in the hotel have made it to safety.

Updated

US citizens 'might be present' in the hotel

US citizens could be among the hostages, according to US State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Updated

Turkish Airlines says a sixth crew member has been freed from the hotel. A statement from the company said that one employee remains inside the hotel, AP reports.

Five crew members: a station chief, two pilots and two flight attendants were released earlier.

Seven Algerians were also among the freed hostages, according to AFP.

Updated

Heavy gunfire was heard inside the luxury hotel as soldiers tried to free the hostages, a witness and security source told Reuters.

“Security forces are operating inside and are clearing each floor bit by bit and freeing hostages who are in their rooms,” the security source said. “There are dozens, even around a hundred, still inside.”

Meanwhile, a US defence official has confirmed that US military personnel in Mali have been helping civilians to secure locations in the wake of the attack.

About 25 American military personnel were in Bamako when Islamist gunmen stormed the hotel, the official said, adding that there had not yet been a formal request for US military assistance.

Malian troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
Malian troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. Photograph: Habibou Kouyate/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Four Chinese hostages have been rescued, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

US special forces are involved in trying to rescue the hostages in the hotel, according to CNN’s Jim Sciutto citing the US Africa Command.

Updated

The Foreign Office is advising people in Bamako to remain indoors and follow instructions from local authorities.

In updated travel advice to Mali, it says:

The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the rest of Mali.

There’s an ongoing incident at the Radisson hotel in Bamako. If you are in Bamako you should remain indoors and follow the instructions of the local authorities.

The situation in Mali is still unstable.

You should maintain several days’ stock of food and water in case disturbances take place ...

There is a high threat from terrorism, including kidnap, especially in areas north of Mopti. Further attacks are highly likely in northern Mali, though the threat exists throughout the country. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners.

Updated

Hotel owner says 138 people still in the building

Despite reports 80 of the 170 hostages have been freed, the owners of the hotel said it believes 138 people are still in the building. In its latest statement the Rezidor hotel group said:

We are closely following the hostage-taking incident that is taking place at the Radisson Blu hotel ... According to our latest information 125 guests and 13 employees are still in the building.

Our highest concern is the safety of all our guests and employees in the hotel. We are in constant contact with the authorities there and will share further information with you when we have it.

Updated

It was the Guinean singer Sékouba “Bambino” Diabate who heard the attackers speaking English.

He was among the 170 taken hostage in the hotel. Speaking to Reuters he said:

“I heard them say in English ‘Did you load it?’, ‘Let’s go’. I wasn’t able to see them because in these kinds of situations it’s hard.”

Updated

Minusma, the UN mission in Mali, has confirmed that it is providing support to the Malian security forces at the hotel.

Here’s footage from Malian state TV showing some of the hostages being freed.

Summary

Here’s how things currently stand:

  • Up to 10 gunmen, said to be shouting “Allahu Akbar”, stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in an upmarket area of Mali’s capital, Bamako at 7am on Friday morning. They initially held hostage 140 guests and 30 hotel staff.
  • At least three people were killed in the attack. They are said to include two Malian security guards and a French national.
  • Some 80 hostages have been freed after security forces entered the hotel. Those who escaped include five Turkish Airline staff and 12 Air France Staff. State TV showed footage of several hostages being freed.
  • The UN and France have sent security reinforcement to the scene. France’s president, François Hollande, said everything possible was being done to end the siege.
  • Turkish, French, Indian, Chinese and Guinean citizens were staying at the hotel when the attack was launched.
  • Mali’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, has cut short a visit to Chad to deal with the aftermath of the siege.

Updated

One of the freed hostages said he heard the gunmen who attacked the hotel speaking English, according to Reuters.

In this TV image taken from Mali TV ORTM, an unidentified man who was in the Radisson Blu Hotel walks to safety in Bamako, Mali.
In this TV image taken from Mali TV ORTM, an unidentified man who was in the Radisson Blu Hotel walks to safety in Bamako, Mali. Photograph: AP

France’s Gendarmerie Nationale has confirmed that special forces are on the way to Mali.

One freed hostage who was hiding in his room as the attack took place, spoke to France 24.

He said: “The police and security forces helped us get out the building. There are still lots of people in there. I also saw bodies in the lobby, It was absolutely horrible.”

He also told the French broadcaster that he believed the police operation was ongoing but gave no more details.

The French broadcaster BFMTV has images of some of the 80 hostages being freed.

French President Hollande has expressed his solidarity and support for Mali.

He said: “I want to assure all Malians of our solidarity and support for them and I urge all French nationals who are in the affected to be vigilant at this time.”

Meanwhile, Liberation is reporting that around 40 elite French police officers have been sent to Bamako to help with the hostage situation.

Updated

Air France says 12 of its staff 'extracted'

Air France says 12 of its staff have been safely “extracted” from the hotel.

Twenty Indian nationals are among the hostages being held, according to the Indian foreign ministry.

“Our ambassador has confirmed that 20 Indians are held hostage at the hotel but they are alive,” spokesman Vikas Swarup told AFP.

The French president, François Hollande, says everything is being done to free the hostages, amid reports that French and US security services have been involved in an operation against the gunmen in the hotel.

Updated

Special forces enter hotel

Malian state TV claims 80 of the 170 hostages have been freed, Conflict News reports, as witnesses and a police source confirm that special forces have entered the hotel.

“They’ve penetrated inside the hotel. The operations are under way,” a police source told Reuters.

Malian army, French and UN troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
Malian army, French and UN troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. Photograph: Amadou Keita/Demotix/Corbis

Updated

Five Turkish Airlines staff freed

Five Turkish Airlines staff members – a station chief, two pilots and two flight attendants – have been freed after being held hostage in the Radisson, writes Kareem Shaheen.

Two TK flight attendants remain inside the hotel, according to a Turkish government official.

At this stage, we do not know whether the crew members were released by the terrorists or rescued by the authorities.

The BBC reports that Guinean singer Sekouba Bambino was among those who escaped the attack on the hotel.

It quotes him telling journalists:“I woke up with the sounds of gunshots and for me, it was just small bandits who came in the hotel to claim something.

“After 20 or 30 minutes, I realised these are not just petty criminals”.

Updated

At least seven Chinese tourist are caught up in the siege, according to the Xinhua state news agency.

A Malian military official has confirmed that at least three people are confirmed dead in the attack.


Lt. Col. Diarran Kone told The Associated Press that the deaths were confirmed after gunmen stormed the hotel

Some 20 hostages were freed later in the morning and others managed to escape with the help of security forces, AP said.

The UN mission has confirmed that it has sent security reinforcements.

If you have been affected by the siege, or have friends and family who are, we want to hear from you. Share your accounts, photos and videos – or any news tips that you’d like to send direct to our journalists – with GuardianWitness.

This is an ongoing situation so please don’t share information that might put you, or your contacts, in danger. Please think about your security first when recording and sharing your content.

You can also share with the Guardian via WhatsApp by adding the contact +44 (0) 7867 825056

Mamadou Tapily a Guardian fixer in Bamako is outside the hotel where he says several ambulances and a convoy of UN vehicles has arrived.

Military sources said three jihadis who stormed the building have been killed, but this cannot be confirmed, he said.

The hotel was attacked by a group of around six people in a 4x4 vehicle at 7am, Tapily was told.

The area is now barricaded off by police.

Ambulances have arrived to treat many wounded people, Tapily said. “Ambulances are making lots of evacuations. We have seen injured people being transported in cars,” he added.

The office of Mali’s president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta tweeted that he is returning to Bamako to deal with the hostage situation after attending a conference in Chad

Britain’s Foreign Office says it is “aware of the situation” and is in touch with the authorities in Mali.

China’s state news agency Xinhua has broadcast a 23 second video clip said to be filmed by one of the hostages.

There are conflicting reports about the response of the security forces. AFP says they have stormed the hotel, citing a minister. But Reuters says that special forces are only “at the scene”, with France providing logistic and intelligence support.

'Three killed'

At least three people - two Malian and one French - were killed in the attack, a UN official told CNN.

The Guardian cannot confirm this report.

What we know

  • Gunmen have attacked a Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, taking 170 hostages.
  • At least two private security guards were injured in the attack, the hotel’s head of security said.
  • Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore said 10 gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel shouting “Allahu Akbar” before shooting at guards and taking hostages.
  • Some hostages, including those able to recite verses of the Qur’an, were later released, security sources told Reuters.
  • A security source told AFP that the gunmen were “jihadis” and entered the hotel compound in a car that had diplomatic plates.

You can read our latest story on the attack here.

Updated

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