Six U.S. citizens have been “rescued so far” in Mali, where gunmen took hostages Friday at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, U.S. Africa Command tweeted Friday. The command added that two U.S. military personnel are “assisting outside (the) hotel.”
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 diplomatic delegations working on a peace process 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 were in the hotel. The Radisson chain said that as many as 170 people had been there as the attack began, 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.
By mid-afternoon, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the Malian security minister, that no hostages remained in the hotel. CNN could not immediately verify the report.
Ap report National broadcaster ORTM, citing security officials, said 18 bodies already had been at the hotel and that no more hostages were being held. A source with Mali’s U.N. mission said at least 12 bodies had been recovered from the hotel. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
It was not immediately clear whether attackers were still alive inside the hotel.
Gunfire continued into the late afternoon, and Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore said operations were continuing.
An extremist group that two years ago split from al-Qaida’s North Africa branch claimed responsibility for the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
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