The hostage situation in which an African jihadist group affiliated with al Qaeda, named Al-Mourabitoun, stormed a hotel in Mali and took 170 people hostage Friday is over, local officials say.
The attack came as the hotel was hosting diplomatic delegations for peace talks in the country, which has been battling Islamist extremists with the help of U.N. and French forces.
The situation began around 7 a.m. local time at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali, when two men with AK-47 rifles left vehicles disguised as ones belonging to diplomats and burst into the hotel while firing their weapons into the air yelling "God is great!" in Arabic, according to CNN.
Malian commandos aided by various foreign special forces soon stormed the hotel after surrounding it, forcing the assailants to retreat.
There was conflicting information about the progression of the incident, with state television saying at noon that 80 hostages had left the building by mid-day, while the hotel's website said an hour later that 124 guests and 13 staff were still inside, according to Reuters.
Some of the hostages were freed after they showed they could recite verses from the Quran, while others were brought out by security forces or managed to escape on their own.
Regardless of how the incident progressed, the attack was over by mid-afternoon and "no more hostages" were being held, Security Minister Salif Traore said, reported AFP.
Authorities are now searching the hotel while trying to determine how many people have died. Thus far, reports indicate that 27 people died during the incident and 18 bodies have been recovered. The two attackers had also been killed, but its unclear if they were counted among the bodies.
There is no immediate confirmation of any link between this incident and the Paris' attacks last Friday that left 130 people dead, but it does come after a jihadist leader in the region denounced the peace deal that was to be held Friday and called for further attacks against France.
