Gunmen
who raided a Malian hotel shouted "Allahu akbar" as they sprayed
bullets on tables of people who were gathered for breakfast, a witness said.The
attackers did not say a word to anyone as they opened fire Friday morning,
employee Tamba Couye said. They shot at "anything that moved" as
terrified patrons dashed for cover all over the hotel, he said.
By
the time Malian and U.N. security forces rushed in and ended the siege hours
later, bodies were scattered across the floors of the Radisson Blu Hotel in
Bamako.
About 140 guests and 30 employees were there when the
attack began, the Radisson chain said. The hotel in an upscale neighborhood in
Bamako is a hub for international guests, and is a 15-minute drive from the
main international airport.
Mali
has declared a 10-day state of emergency and three days of national mourning,
during which flags will be flown at half-staff.
Regional
news agencies pointed fingers at two groups.
Algerian
jihadist and leader of the group, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, may be behind the attack,
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France's TF1. But he said France
was not sure. Belmokhtar was targeted in a U.S. airstrike in Libya in June.
While Libyan officials said he had been killed, their U.S. counterparts never
confirmed his death publicly.
As
news of the attack spread, officials from various nations accounted for their
citizens.
Six Russian nationals "were gunned down together with 13
[others] in the hotel restaurant in the first moments of the terror
attack," the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday in a statement. Six
other Russians were freed.
Three
Chinese nationals were also killed, the Chinese Embassy in Bamako told state
media. The family of Shmuel Ben Halal, a 60-year-old Israeli who worked as an
educational adviser for Mali's government, said he died as well. U.S. citizen
Anita Datar died in the attacks, her brother Sanjeev Datar said. The victims
also include Geoffrey Dieudonne, an administrative counselor for Belgium's
Parliament. He was in Bamako as part of a three-day French-language convention. The Indian count is still unknown.