At least 27 dead after Islamists seize luxury hotel in Mali's capital

Malian security forces evacuate a man from an area surrounding the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako on November 20, 2015.[Photo/CFP]

BAMAKO - A group of Islamist gunmen involved in the storming of a luxury hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako, continued to hold out against security forces on Friday even after the evacuation of all civilians from the building, a security ministry spokesman said.

"The attackers no longer have hostages. They are dug in in the upper floors. They are alone with the Malian special forces who are trying to dislodge them," spokesman Amadou Sangho said.

Police were moving in and out of the hotel, escorting civilians, some of them wounded, a witness said. Interior Security Minister Colonel Salif Traore, speaking on state-run television, said 76 people had been freed by security forces.

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.

Islamist militant group al Mourabitoun said it was jointly responsible with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) for the hotel attack, Mauritania's Alakhbar news agency said.

Al Mourabitoun is led by veteran Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who was reported killed in a US air strike in June. AQIM later denied he had been killed.

By late afternoon, ministerial adviser Amadou Sangho told the French television station BFMTV that no more hostages were being held.

But a UN official said UN peacekeepers on the scene had seen 27 bodies in a preliminary count, and that a search of hotel was continuing. It was not clear whether any of the gunmen, who were said to have dug in on the seventh floor of the hotel as special forces advanced on them, were still active.

State television showed footage of troops in camouflage fatigues wielding AK47s in the lobby of the Radisson Blu, one of Bamako's smartest hotels and beloved of foreigners. In the background, a body lay under a brown blanket at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

The peacekeepers saw 12 dead bodies in the basement of the hotel and another 15 on the second floor, the UN official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He added that the UN troops were still helping Malian authorities search the hotel.

A man working for a Belgian regional parliament was among the dead, the assembly said.

Minister of Internal Security Colonel Salif Traoré said the gunmen had burst through a security barrier at 7 a.m. (0700 GMT), spraying the area with gunfire and shouting "Allahu Akbar", or "God is great" in Arabic.