The Brussels-based
Rezidor Hotel group that operates the hotel said early on that the assailants
had "locked in" 140 guests and 30 employees.
Malian troops
reacted quickly. As people ran for their lives near the hotel along a dirt
road, the soldiers in full combat gear pointed the way to safety. Within hours,
local TV images showed heavily armed troops in what appeared to be a lobby
area. Malian state TV reported that 80 people in the hotel when the assault
began have been freed.
Malian special
forces were freeing hostages "floor by floor," Malian army commander
Modibo Nama Traore told The Associated Press. Still, Rezidor Hotel group put
out a new statement saying 125 guests and 13 employees were still in the hotel.
Traore said at
least one guest reported that the attackers instructed him to recite verses from
the Quran before he was allowed to leave the hotel.
It was not
immediately clear which Muslim extremist groups might be behind the attack,
which unfolded one week after the attacks on Paris that killed 129 people. A handful of
jihadi groups seized the northern half of Mali — a former French colony — in
2012 and were ousted from cities and towns by a French military intervention.
French President
Francois Hollande said: "We should yet again stand firm and show our
solidarity with a friendly country, Mali ."
Traore said 10
gunmen had stormed the hotel shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is
great," in Arabic before firing on the guards. A staffer at the hotel who
gave his name as Tamba Diarra said over the phone that the attackers used grenades
in the assault.
The U.S. Embassy in
Mali told citizens to
shelter in place amid reports of an "ongoing active shooter
operation" at the hotel in Bamako .
Monique Kouame
Affoue Ekonde, from Ivory
Coast , said she and six other people,
including a Turkish woman, were escorted out by security forces as the gunmen
rushed "toward the fifth or sixth floor."
"I think they
are still there. I've left the hotel and I don't know where to go. I'm tired
and in a state of shock," she said.
A top official at
the French presidency said French citizens were in the hotel but could not give
more. The official spoke anonymously in line with presidency policy.
Belgian foreign
minister Didier Reynders said that four Belgians were registered at the hotel
but their whereabouts were unknown.
Citing Chinese
diplomats in Mali ,
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that about 10 Chinese citizens were
sheltering inside their hotel rooms. The embassy was in phone contact with them
and all were reported safe, according to the report. All are employees of
Chinese companies working in Mali .
Five Turkish
Airlines personnel were among the freed hostages, Turkey 's state-run news agency
said.
The website of the
official China Daily newspaper also cited an unidentified witness as saying one
Chinese citizen had been rescued.
The U.N. mission
said it was sending security reinforcements and medical aid to the scene.
Ambulances were seen rushing to the hotel as a military helicopter flew
overhead.
Even after the
French-led military intervention in early 2013 that forced the extremists from
northern towns and cities, the north remains insecure and militant attacks have
extended farther south this year, including the capital. In March masked gunmen
shot up a restaurant in Bamako
that is popular with foreigners, killing five people.
About 1,000 French
troops remain in the country. The Netherlands
also has troops working with the UN mission in Mali . According to the Dutch
defense ministry, some 450 Dutch military personnel are taking part in the
mission along with four Apache and three Chinook helicopters. Most of the Dutch
force is based in Gao, but there are a few officers at the U.N. mission
headquarters in Bamako .
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