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Burkina Faso And Mali To Coordinate Forces After Deadly Attacks

Burkina Faso And Mali To Coordinate Forces After Deadly Attacks

By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Nadoun Coulibaly

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamic militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following two deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region.

Their prime ministers met on Sunday, two days after al Qaeda militants seized the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, opened fire on a restaurant and attacked another hotel nearby, killing at least 28 people from at least seven countries, and wounding 50 other people.

The assault, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), follows a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, which killed 20 people, including citizens of Russia, China and the United States.

In a statement on the Burkina Faso assault that was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, AQIM said: “This blessed operation is but a drop in the sea of global jihad.”

The militant group identified three attackers and called the targeted hotel and surrounding areas “one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent.”

The exact details of the cooperation between Burkina Faso and Mali were not immediately clear, but the patrols and intelligence sharing mark an intent by the two countries to prevent the spread of militancy as AQIM and others expand operations in the region beyond their usual reach.

For years, Islamic militants have used northern Mali as a base, but over the past year they have staged a number of attacks in other parts of the country. Burkina Faso’s authorities are now concerned that its long desert border with Mali could become a transit point for militants.

“There is a very strong political will on the part of the two states to combine our efforts to fight terrorism,” said Burkina Faso’s prime minister, Paul Kaba Thieba.

Thieba and his Malian counterpart Modibo Keita visited the outside of the Splendid Hotel on Sunday, where bullet holes and a charred exterior offered reminders of Friday evening’s attack.

Tight security was in place around the hotel. Inside, Burkinabe and French security officials were conducting an investigation.

Security forces in Burkina Faso retook the 146-room hotel on Saturday after firefights with militants, at least three of whom were killed. Survivors said the militants targeted white victims at the hotel and at the restaurant, both of which were popular among westerners.

According to provisional figures from the Burkinabe government, among the dead were eight Burkinabes, four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two Portuguese, two French, two Swiss and one Dutch citizen. Seven bodies are yet to be identified, and the list is subject to change. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said six Canadians had been killed.

A nine-year-old Italian boy and his mother were killed in the assault on Cappuccino, the restaurant attacked opposite the Splendid Hotel, Italy’s foreign ministry said on Sunday. The boy, Michel Santomenna, and his mother were the son and wife of the restaurant owner, Gaetano Santomenna. She was not Italian and has not yet been named.

“Italy will continue to work to ensure that the international community remains united and intensifies its efforts to fight the terrorist threat, which once again showed its most inhuman and cruel face by targeting innocent civilians,” it said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome and Peter Cooney in Washington; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Chris Reese)

Photo: A soldiers stands guard in front of Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, January 17, 2016, a day after security forces retook the hotel from al Qaeda fighters who seized it in an assault that killed two dozen people from at least 18 countries and marked a major escalation of Islamist militancy in West Africa. REUTERS/Joe Penney

Mali State TV Shows Photos Of ‘Authors’ Of Hotel Attack

Mali State TV Shows Photos Of ‘Authors’ Of Hotel Attack

By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali state television showed images on Monday of two men, apparently dead, that it said were the “authors” of an attack by Islamist militants on a luxury hotel in the capital Bamako and appealed for information as to their identity.

Twenty people plus two gunmen died in Friday’s assault on the Radisson Blu hotel. The victims included six Russians, three Chinese, an American, a Belgian, a Senegalese and an Israeli.

Jihadist group Al Mourabitoun and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) declared they had carried out the attack in a joint operation against the hotel, a favourite of foreign businessmen and diplomats.

The pictures on state television were of two young black men, one of them lying on a metal gurney, a trickle of blood running from beneath his left shoulder.

The broadcaster appealed for Malians who had any information about them to come forward.

The bloodshed, which came a week after Islamic State attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, underlined deepening insecurity in Mali and the difficulties French and U.N. peacekeeping forces are having in stabilising the former French colony.

The 10,000-member U.N. force, MINUSMA, said on Monday that 20 civilians and two militants died in the attack, raising the toll from 19 civilians reported earlier by the government.

Chief prosecutor Boubacar Sidiki Samake, heading the investigation, said authorities had recovered mobile phones and machine pistols from the bodies of the two militants that will help them understand how the attack was conceived.

The Massina Liberation Front, blamed for previous violence in southern Mali, on Sunday became the third group to claim responsibility for the attack.

The al-Akhbar news agency of neighbouring Mauritania said it received an audio message in Arabic from Al Mourabitoun in which the group named two of its men it said staged the attack.

The message said the men died after mounting “stiff resistance” and called for further “resistance to the aggression of crusaders on the mujahideen of Mali”. It was not immediately possible to verify the message’s content.

Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda seized the desert north of Mali in 2012 following a separatist uprising but were scattered by a French military operation the following year.

Jihadists have stepped up attacks this year on Western and Malian targets beyond their traditional desert bases. In August, they stormed a hotel in central Mali, killing at least 12 people in an attack similar to Friday’s.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

The exterior of the Radisson hotel is seen in Bamako, Mali, November 20, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Penney

As Many As 27 Killed In Attack On Mali Hotel; 6 Americans Among Scores Freed

As Many As 27 Killed In Attack On Mali Hotel; 6 Americans Among Scores Freed

By Robyn Dixon, Alexandra Zavis and Soumaila Guindo, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

BAMAKO, Mali — Suspected Islamist gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako early Friday, killing as many as 27 people and taking scores of hostages during a daylong siege.

Gunfire and explosions continued late into the afternoon, as security forces surrounded the Radisson Blu hotel and conducted a floor-by-floor rescue operation.

Television footage from inside the building showed Malian troops in full combat gear escorting terrified guests from the building, some of them injured. A body lay at the foot of a staircase, covered with a brown blanket.

By early evening, state-run Malian TV was reporting that 18 bodies had been found and no more captives were being held. But a United Nations official told The Associated Press that 27 bodies had been counted during an initial search, 12 in the basement and 15 on the second floor.

Three gunmen were killed during the operation, a Malian security official told reporters at the scene. It was not immediately clear if others remained holed up inside.

A local Islamist extremist group, Al Mourabitoun, said it carried out the attack in coordination with al-Qaida’s local affiliate. If true, it would appear to be another deadly assault on French interests after last week’s bombing and shooting rampage in Paris. France has taken a leading role in the fight against Islamist militants in Mali and other former colonies in West Africa.

The hotel, which is popular among foreign visitors, was seen as a prime target for extremists in Bamako but was lightly secured. There were 140 people, including 30 staff members, inside when the attack happened at about 7 a.m., according to the Malian presidency.

The gunmen drove up to the hotel at the same time as a car with diplomatic plates and opened fire on it, according to Malian officials. Two hotel guards were reported killed in the initial barrage.

The assailants then stormed into the lobby yelling “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” and went room-to-room looking for guests, local news reports said. Some who could recite Quranic verses were later freed, military officials told the AP.

At least six Americans were among those freed or who fled on their own, according to Col. Mark R. Cheadle, a spokesman for the United States Africa Command.

“A small group of U.S. forces have helped move civilians to secure locations as Malian forces work to clear the hotel of hostile gunmen,” Cheadle said.

American forces in Mali, a former French colony, routinely help the French military with intelligence gathering, aerial refueling and other missions.

One of the hotel’s residents, Guinean singer Sekouba Bambino Diabate, told Reuters he heard the attackers speaking English.

“I heard them say in English, ‘Did you load it?’ ‘Let’s go,’ ” Diabate said after he was freed.

Malian authorities dismissed initial reports that the attackers arrived at the hotel in a car with diplomatic plates, saying that they drove up to the hotel at the same time as a car with diplomatic plates and opened fire on it.

The assault came amid a deteriorating security situation in Mali, with Islamist militant groups from the north increasingly infiltrating the south and launching attacks.

Al Mourabitoun has claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including a March attack on a Bamako restaurant that killed two French nationals, a Belgian and two Malians.

The group is led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant blamed for a major assault on an Algerian natural gas facility in 2013 in which 39 foreign hostages were killed.

France intervened in Mali in early 2013 after al-Qaida-linked militias seized more than half the country in 2012. The groups included al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine and the Movement for Justice and Unity in West Africa , or MUJAO, which imposed a harsh form of Islamic law across the region.

France saw the conquests as a direct threat, with extremist groups gaining a stronghold on France’s back doorstep, within easy striking distance of Europe.

The French intervention force, with 4,500 troops, swiftly drove militant groups out of Mali’s major cities. France scaled back in August 2014, merging the Mali operation with one operating across five countries in the region.

However, Operation Barkhane, consisting of 3,000 forces, is spread too thinly to contain the increasing militant attacks, experts say.

A 10,000-strong United Nations force is also stationed in Mali but has not been focusing on the terrorist threat. Mali’s own army remains poorly equipped and unable to secure the country’s vast desert territory without outside help.

One of the five major groups active in the country, MUJAO, reportedly declared allegiance to Islamic State in May, several months after Nigerian militant group Boko Haram joined with the group.

French officials have expressed concern that other groups could do the same following reports that an Islamic State envoy traveled to northern Mali recently for meetings with leaders of the local al-Qaida affiliate, Ansar Dine, and others.

French President Francois Hollande pledged to help and sent an elite paramilitary unit to Bamako.

In recent months, Malian militant groups have switched focus from attacking military targets in the north to threatening civilian targets in central and southern Mali.

The country has seen several deadly attacks this year. In August, gunmen attacked a hotel in the town of Sevare, killing 13 people. There also have been attacks on security posts in Bamako and at a U.N. residence.

September saw an attack near Mopti that killed two police officers and two civilians.

Another militant group, the Guardians of Jihad, recently issued death threats against foreign journalists in Mali, particularly from France, warning them to leave the country.

(Times staff writers Dixon reported from Johannesburg and Zavis from Los Angeles. Special correspondent Guindo reported from Bamako. Staff writer W.J. Hennigan in Washington contributed to this report.)

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A Malian police officer stands guard in front of the Radisson hotel in Bamako, Mali, November 20, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Penney

At Least 27 Dead After Islamists Seize Luxury Hotel In Mali’s Capital

At Least 27 Dead After Islamists Seize Luxury Hotel In Mali’s Capital

By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO (Reuters) – At least 27 people were reported dead on Friday after Malian commandos stormed a luxury hotel in the capital Bamako with at least 170 people inside, many of them foreigners, that had been seized by Islamist gunmen.

The former French colony has been battling Islamist rebels for several years, and the jihadist group Al Mourabitoun, allied to al Qaeda and based in the deserts of northern Mali, claimed responsibility for the attack in a tweet.

By late afternoon, ministerial adviser Amadou Sangho told the French television station BFMTV that no more hostages were being held.

But a U.N. official said U.N. peacekeepers on the scene had seen 27 bodies in a preliminary count, and that a search of hotel was continuing. It was not clear whether any of the gunmen, who were said to have dug in on the seventh floor of the hotel as special forces advanced on them, were still active.

State television showed footage of troops in camouflage fatigues wielding AK47s in the lobby of the Radisson Blu, one of Bamako’s smartest hotels and beloved of foreigners. In the background, a body lay under a brown blanket at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

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

A man working for a Belgian regional parliament was among the dead, the assembly said.

Minister of Internal Security Colonel Salif Traoré said the gunmen had burst through a security barrier at 7 a.m. (0200 ET), spraying the area with gunfire and shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is great” in Arabic.

BURSTS OF GUNFIRE

Occasional bursts of gunfire were heard as the assailants went through the seven-floor building, room-by-room and floor-by-floor, one senior security source and a witness told Reuters.

Some people were freed by the attackers after showing they could recite verses from the Koran, while others were brought out by security forces or managed to escape under their own steam.

One of the rescued hostages, celebrated Guinean singer Sékouba ‘Bambino’ Diabate, said he had overheard two of the assailants speaking in English as they searched the room next to his.

“We heard shots coming from the reception area. I didn’t dare go out of my room because it felt like this wasn’t just simple pistols – these were shots from military weapons,” Diabate told Reuters by phone.

“The attackers went into the room next to mine. I stayed still, hidden under the bed, not making a noise,” he said. “I heard them say in English ‘Did you load it?’, ‘Let’s go’.”

The raid on the hotel, which lies just west of the city center near government ministries and diplomatic offices, came a week after Islamic State militants killed 129 people in Paris, raising fears that French nationals were being specifically targeted.

Twelve Air France flight crew were in the building but all were extracted safely, the French national carrier said.

A Turkish official said five of seven Turkish Airlines staff had also managed to flee. The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said three of 10 Chinese tourists caught inside had been rescued.

PRESIDENT RETURNS

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita cut short a trip to a regional summit in Chad, his office said.

Northern Mali was occupied by Islamist fighters, some with links to al Qaeda, for most of 2012. They were driven out by a French-led military operation, but sporadic violence has continued in Mali’s central belt on the southern reaches of the Sahara, and in Bamako.

One security source said as many as 10 gunmen had stormed the building, although the company that runs the hotel, Rezidor Group, said it understood that there were only two attackers.

Al Mourabitoun has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Mali, including an assault on a hotel in the town of Sevare, 600 km (375 miles) northeast of Bamako, in August in which 17 people including five U.N. staff were killed.

One of its leaders is Mokhtar Belmokhtar, blamed for a large-scale assault on an Algerian gas field in 2013 and a major figure in insurgencies across North Africa.

In the wake of last week’s Paris attacks, an Islamic State militant in Syria told Reuters the organization viewed France’s military intervention in Mali as another reason to attack France and French interests.

“This is just the beginning. We also haven’t forgotten what happened in Mali,” said the non-Syrian fighter, who was contacted online by Reuters. “The bitterness from Mali, the arrogance of the French, will not be forgotten at all.”

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Joe Bavier and Ed Cropley; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Photo: Still image from video show a hostage rushed out from the Radisson hotel in Bamako, Mali, November 20, 2015. REUTERS/REUTERS TV