LIVE: ‘Allah Hu Akbar’: Shooting, Hostage Situation Underway At French Troops’ Radisson Hotel, Mali
By Breitbart London
20 Nov 2015
Source: LIVE: ‘Allah Hu Akbar’: Shooting, Hostage Situation Underway At Radisson Hotel, Mali
Gunmen have taken 170 hostages, killing three so far at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako. The gunmen are reported to be releasing people that can recite verses from the Quran.
Automatic weapon fire was heard from outside the 190-room hotel in the city-centre where security forces have set up a security cordon, according to Agence France Presse. Security sources told AFP the gunmen were “jihadists” who had entered the hotel compound in a car that had diplomatic plates.
“It’s all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor,” one security source said.
Malian soldiers, police and special forces were on the scene as a security perimeter was set up, along with members of the UN’s MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali and the French troops fighting jihadists in west Africa under Operation Barkhane.
French troops are believed to have been stationed at the hotel.
LIVE UPDATES BELOW (GMT):
3:44PM: The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, earlier made a statement in the French Assembly. His comments were met with applause. He said:
“This morning Bamako, Mali, a country which is resisting jihadism with so much spirit, has been attacked.
“A hostage situation is in progress. I want to express here once again France’s total support for our friends in Mali and Malian democracy.
“We are at their sides yesterday, today and always.”
3:41PM: The BBC has reported how the rescue operation unfolded.
First, Malian security forces, supported by UN troops as well as French and U.S .special forces, set up a cordon. They then entered the hotel and brought out hostages at a rate of one or two roughly every 20 minutes.
As the liberators moved from floor to floor gunfire was heard, with the attackers firing most heavily when the rescuers reached the fifth and seventh floors.
3:35PM: The Malian security minister has announced that the gunmen are “holding no more hostages”, reports AFP. The death toll may have risen to 18.
3:29PM: Besides Mali, at least nine countries have citizens among the hostages — Algeria, Morocco, Germany, Belgium, China, France, India, Turkey and America.
3:23PM: The Malian security minister has listed 89 freed hostages, excluding the six U.S. citizens freed by U.S. Special Forces. It is believed that 43 hostages remain in the building.
3:15PM: The freed hostage who said he heard attackers speaking in English as he hid under his hotel bed — Guinean singer Sakouba ‘Bambino’ Diabate — says the accents were Nigerian, according to Le Monde.
3:10PM: Seven Algerians, six of which are diplomats, and two Russian airline workers are among the freed hostages.
3:01PM: Northern Mali’s Al-Mourabitoun, a group of mostly Tuaregs and Arabs but also Algerians, Tunisians and other nationalities, has claimed responsibility on Twitter. Their claim is as yet unverified.
2:56PM: An Al-Qaeda affiliate group has claimed that they are behind today’s terror attack.
2:54PM: A military spokesman has announced that six U.S. citizens have been freed.
2:52PM: The Indian government confirms all 20 of its citizens have been freed.
2:50PM French special forces are reported to have arrived at the hotel where an estimated 138 hostages, including 13 staff, are being held by terrorists.
2:44PM: AFP confirms US special forces are helping rescue the hostages, according to Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza. He said:
“Special Operations Command Forward-North and West Africa personnel are currently assisting hostage recovery efforts at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako.
“US forces have helped move civilians to secured locations, as Malian forces clear the hotel of hostile gunmen.”
2:41PM: The U.S. State Department believes U.S. citizens might be present at the hotel
1:50PM: Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier has reported that two Germans have been released from hotel attack
1:28PM: The hotel has announced an information telephone line for families of potential hostages.
1:26pm: The Indian Embassy in Mali has said all the Indians who had been staying at the Radisson Blu hotel are safe. It had been reported that 20 Indians were hotel guests. An embassy official the BBC:
“They are in a block of the hotel which is slight off the main area. They are employees of a private business enterprise. We are in touch with them.”
1:19pm: US and French troops accompanied Malian forces entering the hotel, Bloomberg is reporting. The news is said to come via a local United Nations official’s e-mail.
1:03PM: 125 guests and 13 staff are reported still to be held hostage, but sources warn the numbers are “fluid”.
12:56PM: Malian journalist Moussa Konda reports security forces told him they were able to free hostages because attackers did not know the hotel layout very well.
12:53PM: There is still confusion over numbers in the siege situation. Hostage numbers are now estimated to have been between 150 to 180 and attackers numbering between two and 13. Turkish, French, Indian, Chinese and Guinean citizens were staying at the hotel which was reported to be 90 per cent occupied.
12:45PM: Amid reports that passengers were told all flights between Paris and the US have been cancelled, flight radar shows an Air France Boeing 777-200 from Paris to San Francisco performing several loops and a u-turn over the English Channel before returning to France, reports The Mirror.
12:38PM: Reuters reports a freed hostage saying the attackers spoke English before launching the attack, saying “did you load it, let’s go.”
12:18PM: Around 40-50 members of the French counter-terrorist and hostage rescue specialist GIGN anti-terror unit are en route to Mali.
12:14PM: Film footage from inside and outside the hotel recorded by Malian television has been broadcast on Sky News.
12:13PM: Air France confirms 12 of their crew who were in the hotel, two pilots and 10 cabin crew, have been “extracted” from the siege. All Air France flights to Mali have been suspended.
11:50AM: Images from the siege.
11:40AM: Air France has cancelled a flight to Mali.
11:35AM: An escaped hotel staff member says the attackers have taken the hostages underground to a basement of car parks and storage rooms which is more difficult to access than the upper floors, according to Jeune Afrique.
11:24AM: Aaron Klein at Breitbart Jerusalem points to a possible Mali connection to last week’s Paris attacks.
Last year a well-known jihadi website with ties to al-Qaida called on supporters to carry out lone wolf attacks inside France with focus on soft targets. Significantly, the al Minbar Jihadi Media Network also called for the assassination of President Francois Hollande, who was inside the soccer stadium hit by two suicide bombers during the Paris attacks.
The Al Minbar Jihadi Media Network publishes propaganda for al Qaeda affiliates, including al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. It is particularly active in Mali.
The website said its anti-France posters came in response to French military campaigns in Mali and the Central African Republic, where France has maintained 2,000 soldiers as part of a 6,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission.
At the time, Hollande responded directly to the threats, saying, “We are extremely vigilant” and “It’s not the first time there are threats.”
The Mali branch of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb is particularly capable and has international connections. It has been led by Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, now the strongman of the group Al-Murabitoun.
Belmoktar claimed responsibility for a January 2013 attack on an Algeria gas facility in which at last 39 foreign hostages were killed during a three-day siege.
He has also been connected to the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack.
11:21AM: The UN’s Minusma taskforce has joined the Mali security services in dealing with the siege.
11:11AM: BBC French Service’s Mamadou Moussa says that a radical Islamist militant leader in Mali had called on his followers to target French interests in the country.
11:08AM: Earlier statement from Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno:
“There is a new terrorist attack taking place in Mali at the moment. Hostages have been taken at the Radisson hotel – a place everybody knows.
“There are men and women, citizens who are just doing their jobs and have been targeted.
“I condemn in the strongest possible way this barbaric act which has nothing to do with religion.
“I reaffirm our unending support for our brother Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (Mali’s president) and all the people of Mali.
“Nothing is very clear as yet. But we can expect blood and tears.”
11:05AM: Three Turkish airline workers have escaped from the hotel, reports Reuters.
10:57AM: Security services convinced that the attack has been launched by Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Dine.
10:46AM:
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