Seven Algerians, including six members of a Algerian diplomatic delegation, are safe after being trapped in the hotel in Mali’s capital, the state-run Algerie Presse Service reported Friday afternoon. The Algerians were freed during a counterassault by U.N. and Malian forces, the outlet reported.
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Security forces have reportedly launched a counterassault on a hotel in the capital of the West African nation of Mali, where officials say gunmen took dozens of hostages and killed at least three people Friday morning.
The situation began around 7 a.m. at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, when two or three attackers with AK-47 rifles exited at least one vehicle with diplomatic plates and entered the hotel with guns firing, said Olivier Saldago, a spokesman for the United Nations mission in Mali.
Two Malian nationals and a French national have died, a U.N. official said without elaborating.
The attack, Saldago said, came as the hotel hosted a large delegation to peace talks in the landlocked country, a former French colony that has been battling Islamist extremists with the help of U.N. and French forces.
There was conflicting information about how many people were in the hotel. The Radisson chain said that as many as 170 people had been at the hotel at the start, and that 125 guests and 13 employees still were inside by early Friday afternoon.
By noon, the country’s state broadcaster, ORTM, reported that at least 80 people had been freed. But Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita released a statement indicating 17 had been rescued.
Malian soldiers, with help from U.N. troops, had the hotel surrounded, a journalist for ORTM told CNN from the scene. Two security personnel also are injured, Malian 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 incident.
Counterassault underway, French President says
The Radisson Blu Hotel sits in an upscale neighborhood outside the center of Bamako, rising high above the dusty streets and surrounding houses. With 190 rooms and suites, it’s about a 15-minute drive from Bamako-Senou International Airport.
The hotel is one of the most modern in the capital, as evidenced by its glass and brick facade and many amenities, including a restaurant that opens onto a veranda, a pool and a gym.
It’s known as a hub for international guests and affluent Malians who frequent it for meals and meetings, said CNN correspondent Nima Elbagir, who has stayed there.
Security forces have begun a counterassault on the hotel, said French President Francois Hollande, who said he’d been in touch with Malian authorities dealing with the hostage situation.
Hollande, speaking to reporters in Paris, pledged to provide “necessary support” to help Mali resolve the situation.
France on Friday afternoon said it dispatched to Mali an elite paramilitary group trained in hostage rescue and counterterrorism operations.
U.S. special operations forces also are helping, a U.S. military spokesman said.
“U.S. forces have helped move civilians to secured locations as Malian forces clear the hotel of hostile gunmen,” said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command.
The timing of the attack comes just a day after Hollande praised his troops for successfully fighting Islamists in the landlocked former French colony.
“France is leading this war with its armed forced, 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,” he said.
At Mali’s request, France launched an offensive in 2013 after radical Islamists seized the strategic town of Konna.
The ground and air campaign sent Islamist fighters who had seized the northern region fleeing into the vast desert.
There are no French troops stationed in Bamako right now, the French army said.
Air France, Turkish Airlines employees were at hotel
Twelve Air France crew members who were staying at the hotel were safely extracted, the airline tweeted Friday. Air France has canceled all its flights Friday to and from Bamako as a precaution, the airline said.
Turkish Airlines said at least seven of its employees were staying at the hotel Friday. Six are free, and one still was in the hotel as of early Friday afternoon, the airline said.
At least seven Chinese guests are among those held hostage, Chinese media reported. At least four of them had been rescued by Friday afternoon, state-run CCTV reported, citing a source at the Chinese Embassy in Mali.
One of the trapped Chinese guests exchanged instant messages with a reporter from the Xinhua news agency and said he heard multiple gunshots outside his room and then smelled smoke.
China has been expanding its presence in Africa in recent years, investing and building large-scale infrastructure projects throughout the continent.
Many Chinese businesspeople also see opportunities in Africa and have been flocking there.
Twenty Indian nationals also were in the hotel, Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said on Twitter.
August attack
Friday’s attack comes about three months after 12 people — including five Malian soldiers — were killed in a hostage situation and ensuing battle at a hotel in Sevare in central Mali in August.
The soldiers stormed the hotel to end a daylong siege that started when gunmen raided the hotel after attacking a military site nearby, witnesses said.
In that incident, the attackers were affiliated with the Macina Liberation Movement. Human Rights Watch has described the group as Islamists who commit “serious abuses in the course of military operations against Mali’s security forces.”
