Posted on 11/20/2015 3:14:16 AM PST by RC one
Gunmen went on a shooting rampage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako on Friday, seizing 170 guests and staff in an ongoing hostage-taking, the hotel chain said.
Automatic weapons fire could be heard from outside the 190-room hotel in the city-centre, where security forces have set up a security cordon, an AFP journalist 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.
The Rezidor Hotel Group, the US-based parent company of Radisson Blu, said two people were holding 170 people hostage.
The company said it was "aware of the hostage-taking that is ongoing at the property today, 20th November 2015. As per our information two persons have locked in 140 guests and 30 employees".
It added in a statement: "Our safety and security teams and our corporate team are in constant contact with the local authorities in order offer any support possible to reinstate safety and security at the hotel."
The shooting at the Radisson follows a nearly 24-hour siege and hostage-taking at another hotel in August in the central Malian town of Sevare in which five UN workers were killed, along with four soldiers and four attackers.
Five people, including a French citizen and a Belgian, were also killed in an attack at a restaurant in Bamako in March in the first such incident in the capital.
Islamist groups have continued to wage attacks in Mali despite a June peace deal between former Tuareg rebels in the north of the country and rival pro-government armed groups.
Northern Mali fell in March-April 2012 to Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups long concentrated in the area before being ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation....
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Had to look on a map - Mali is in the nw part of Africa. I guess whatever rebels/terrorists in that part of the world were feeling left out. Not sure if it could be ISIS - seems out of there area of concern.
I imagine it will be the new focus for awhile.
Please take a number for refugee status.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34877069
here is another link. Perhaps around 10 gunman. A gardener said they drove up in a vehicle with diplomatic plates.
They let go some of the hostages who could recite verses from the Koran. Security forces have liberated some of the hostages, as well.
Tracking here:
https://twitter.com/NewsOnTheMin
What? Are we afraid of a few gunmen?
It was an Al Queda controlled territory until recently according to the article.
Who in their right mind would ever take a ‘luxury’ vacation in Africa? I’d love to see the pyramids, but that is definitely off my bucket list.
But I thought these attacks have nothing to do with Islam? Perhaps the Koran has nothing to do with Islam? /sarc
Especially after the attacks on tourists at a museum and on a beach in northern Africa this year, you’d think that large hotel chains with an international reputation to protect would have very effective security on their premises.
So it's not right-wing, gun-toting, Bible clinging extremists?
Another attack on the french, I hate to say I imagine they are all being killed...Paris all over
French hotel
Luxury in that part of the world is running filtered water. Electricity (most of the time) and air conditioning.
The article cleverly doesn’t say it was muzlems.
I imagine the hotel has now been rigged with explosives and will go up in a cloud of dust as soon as the jihadists are cornered with the captives.
Aloha snackbar.
Mali is the new and famous beating heart of terrorism, sure, let`s go on a vacation THERE.
Edgy. Very edgy.
People have to remember their ABCs- Always Be Carrying. This is coming to America. It is 100% inevitable.
Unfortunately, I think you are right.
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First time I've been exposed to that. Funny on a couple of different levels!
Didn’t realize the TEA PARTY was in Africa.
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