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| The Radisson Blu is a popular spot for the local business and political élite, and also for travellers and expatriates—an immense amount of wealth and privilege concentrated in a seven-story hotel. Credit Photograph by Joe Penney / Reuters / Landov |
Islamist militants killed
27 people in an attack on a top hotel in the capital of Mali before Malian
commandos stormed the building and rescued 170 people, many of them foreigners.
Two
militants were killed. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced the death
toll and said seven people were wounded in the attack, which has been claimed
by jihadist group Al Mourabitoun and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Friday’s
assault on the Radisson Blu hotel comes a week after deadly Islamic State attacks
in Paris that killed 130 people. The Mali attack was the latest in a series of
deadly raids this year on high-profile targets in the country, which has
battled Islamist rebels based in its desert north for years.
