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.
THE ARTICLE HAS UP TO THE MINUTE BREAKING NEWS IN THE VARIOUS VIDEOS AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE!
Mali Attack – Live Coverage Here!
In the first video, we learn that at this time, we don’t know specifically who the gunman are, however if you listen closely, the person being interviewed seems to elude to the fact that the attacks taking place at this moment are in retaliation for prior French counter-terrorism acts.
In the second video below, there is no sound but you can make out people who appear to be moving for cover. There is no direct line of sight, but the shooter(s) are obviously still present.
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):
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”.
In the third video, we learn that 2 people have locked in 190 guests at the Radisson Hotel, in Mali. Developments are slow coming, but we’ve learned that police are on the scene, however no word on what the status of the hostages is yet!
In the 4th video, the composition of the hostages is broken down a bit. From what we’ve learned, the hostages are comprised of roughly140 Guests and 30 employees. No word yet on plans for the police to raid the building or what the status is of either the shooters or the hostages!
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.
U-turn: The US-bound Air France plane performed several loops over the English Channel. (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.
12:03PM: The hotel is being cleared by floor by floor by Malian special forces, sporadic gunfire heard outside, reports Sky News.
12:01PM: The French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, tells a press conference France will take “all steps necessary” to combat the Bamako attackers, as a crisis unit is set up in the local French embassy.
11:56AM: 80 of the 170 hostages taken (of whom 140 were guests and 30 staff) have been freed, according to Reuters.
11.54AM: Malian special forces, backed by intelligence from the French military, are confirmed to have entered the hotel.
Malian troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako on November 20, 2015. (HABIBOU KOUYATE/AFP/Getty Images)
11:50AM: Images from the siege.
Malian security forces evacuate two women from an area surrounding the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. (HABIBOU KOUYATE/AFP/Getty Images)
Malian troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. (HABIBOU KOUYATE/AFP/Getty Images)
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:
10:28AM: Experts tell Sky News that ISIS is not active in Mali
10:27AM (GMT): Reuters reports that French citizens are among those currently being held hostage
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