At Least 21 Dead in Mali Hotel Attack, Army Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Assailants with guns blazing attacked a hotel hosting diplomats and others in Mali's capital on Friday, leaving at least 21 people dead and trapping dozens in the building for hours, officials in the West African nation said.
Malian and UN security forces launched a counterattack at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako and escorted guests out. By late Friday afternoon, no hostages were believed to remain in the building, though attackers still were inside, Malian army Col. Mamadou Coulibaly told reporters.
Twenty-one people were killed, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. At least six people injured in the attack have been hospitalized, Mali Health Minister Marie Madeleine Togo told state broadcaster ORTM.
Video aired by ORTM showed security personnel leading people out of the building.
The assault began about 7 a.m., when two or three attackers with AK-47 rifles exited at least one vehicle with diplomatic plates and entered the hotel with guns firing, Salgado said, CNN reported.
The attack, Salgado said, came as the hotel hosted diplomatic delegations working on a peace process in the landlocked country, a former French colony that has been battling extremists with the help of UN and French forces.
The Radisson chain said that as many as 170 people -- 140 guests and 30 employees -- had been there as the attack began.
Malian soldiers and UN troops had the hotel surrounded, a journalist for ORTM told CNN from the scene. Two security personnel were injured, Security Minister Salif Traore said on ORTM.
"We're still hearing erratic gunfire," journalist Katarina Hoije told CNN from near the scene Friday afternoon.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Radisson Blu Hotel is in an upscale neighborhood outside the center of Bamako, rising high above the dusty streets and surrounding houses. With 190 rooms and suites, it is known as a hub for international guests such as diplomats and businesspeople, and it is a 15-minute drive from Bamako-Senou International Airport.
