Gunmen Take 170 People Hostage in Mali Hotel Attack U.S. Embassy in Mali asks citizens to shelter By Drew Hinshaw
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ongoing-shooter-operation-reported-at-radisson-blu-hotel-in-mali-1448011876
Gunmen took 170 people hostage on Friday morning at a hotel in Bamako, the capital of Mali, a West African nation where French troops are at war with al Qaeda militants.
Soldiers and police surrounded the Radisson Blu hotel in a standoff, said Capt. Baba Cissé, an army spokesman. The Brussels-based Rezidor Hotel Group, which operates the hotel, said two gunmen were holding 30 of its workers and 140 of its guests inside.
The U.S. embassy asked its citizens to stay indoors.
Mali is a somewhat forgotten front in the West’s war on Islamist insurgencies. Al Qaeda allies took control of the country’s desert north, including the fabled city of Timbuktu, in 2012. In 2013, French troops and United Nations peacekeepers arrived to combat those terrorists.
Since then, soft attacks on civilians, particularly foreigners, have become frequent. In August, an attack on a hotel in the garrison town of Sevare left nine people dead.
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