As many as 125 guests and 13 employees of the Radisson Blu hotel are being held hostage in the Malian capital of Bamako by extremists, the hotel operator said in a statement Friday.
“We are closely following the hostage-taking incident that is taking place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Bamako / Mali today, 20th November 2015. According to our latest information 125 guests and 13 employees are still in the building,” the statement said.
Malian Special Forces started storming the hotel. Paris sent fifty acounter-terrorism officers to assist them. US special forces are also participating in the operation.
The Malian Special Forces freed about 30 hostages during the operation to retake control of the hotel.
"Our special forces have freed about 30 hostages and others were able to escape on their own," Col. Salif Traore stated, as quoted by the Jeune Afrique news website.
According to him, three hostages, all foreigners, were killed during the special forces’ operation.
The attackers arrived at the scene at the same time with a car with diplomatic plates but were not in it, the Malian authorities said. Earlier some media reported that the hostage takers came in that car.
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