Mali hotel under siege as gunmen hold 170 hostage

Gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” stormed a Mali hotel.

Attackers screaming “Allahu Akbar” unleashed bombs and gunfire at the five-star Radisson Blu hotel in the Mali capital city of Bamako on Friday, taking 170 or so guests and staffers hostage and implementing Koran recitation tests, letting free those who successfully quote from the Muslim holy book.

CNN reported three, including two Malian nations and a French national, have been killed.

“It’s all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor,” one security official said, Agence France-Press reported.

Malian soldiers and security forces with the United Nations have surrounded the facility and set up a perimeter.

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Fox News reported the attackers arrived on scene via diplomatic vehicles, firing weapons as they plowed through the front gates.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but several media sources and witnesses reported hearing “Allahu Akbar” screamed by the attackers, leading many to believe this is yet another terror incident of radical Islamism.

CNN reported the timing of the attack is also concerning, as it comes just one day after French President Francois Hollande heaped praise on his military for successful battles against Islamists in the African country.

He said then, CNN reported: “France is leading this war with its armed forces, its soldiers, its courage. It must carry out this war with its allies, its partners giving us all the means available, as we did in Mali, as we are going to continue in Iraq, as we’ll continue in Syria.”

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Olivier Saldag, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Mali, called MINUSMA, said the hotel was hosting a delegation for the peace process. The United Nations had send peacekeepers to Mali back in 2013 to fight off insurgency from radical Islamists who wanted to take over Bamako.

President Obama has been briefed on the situation, but has yet to issue a statement. The U.S. Embassy in Mali, meanwhile, told American citizens to stay inside. In a tweet, embassy officials wrote: “[This is an] ongoing active shooter operation.”

 

 

 

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