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At least 27 people were reported dead on Friday after Malian commandos stormed a luxury hotel in the capital Bamako with at least 170 people inside, many of them foreigners, that had been seized by Islamist gunmen. The former French colony has been battling Islamist rebels for several years, and the jihadist group Al Mourabitoun, allied to al Qaeda and based in the deserts of northern Mali, claimed responsibility for the attack in a tweet. By late afternoon, ministerial adviser Amadou Sangho told the French television station BFMTV that no more hostages were being held. But a U.N. official said...

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,...

Muslim terrorists opened fire on an upscale hotel on Friday in the city of Bamako, the capital of the western African state of Mali. The jihadists used automatic weapons according to security sources, and apparently have taken people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel. Some reports indicate that at least three people have died in the attack. The luxury hotel, which has 190 rooms, is a popular site for Western officials according to French-language media. According to the French RFI radio, the attack was launched by three assailants who entered the hotel with diplomatic cars. Security forces have set up...

Gunmen have launched an attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel in the centre of Mali's capital, Bamako, witnesses say. "Apparently it's an attempt to take hostages. The police are there and are sealing off the area," a security source told Reuters news agency. Automatic weapon fire could be heard from outside the 190-room hotel, AFP reports. BBC Afrique's Abdourahmane Dia says the US-owned hotel is popular with expats working in 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,...

Security forces have reportedly begun 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 stormed the hotel, firing guns and taking a number of hostages, officials said. By noon, at least 80 hostages had been freed, the country's state broadcaster, ORTM, reported. The hotel had 140 guests and 30 employees, hotel officials said, though Malian Security Minister Salif Traore said...