BBC:
Qatari Al Jazeera TV has identified the group holding a number of people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali as the “Ansar al-Din (supporters of religion)” group.
The channel’s correspondent in Mali described Ansar al-Din as an “extremist military group that seeks to implement Islamic Sharia in Mali”.
The Mali population is 55% unaffiliated Muslim according to wiki. Only been to one Muslim majority country in my life. Jordan in 1996. Likely my first and last visit to a Muslim majority nation.
BBC:
Michael Skapoullis, who witnessed the attack in Bamako, has been speaking on the Victoria Debyshire programme on BBC News.
He described how he escaped from the Radisson Blu hotel with help of the police:
Report
The BBC French Service’s Mamadou Moussa also told the programme that a radical Islamist militant leader in Mali had called on his followers to target French interests in the country: