Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called for a broader international cooperation to fight terrorism in the wake of the attack on a hotel in Mali that killed 21 people, including six Russians.
Putin, in his condolence message to Malian President Ibrahim Bubacar Keita, said that the atrocious crime committed in the capital of Mali reaffirms that terrorism knows no boundaries and is a real danger for the whole world, according to TASS. "People of different nationalities and religions become its victims, and it is possible to withstand this threat only through the broadest international cooperation," he said.
The Russian foreign ministry said Saturday that six Russian employees of a cargo airline were killed in Friday's terror attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
"The six victims were gunned down in the hotel restaurant in the first moments of the terror attack," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RIA Novosti, according to Xinhua. "We strongly condemn this inhumane crime that was aimed at destabilizing the situation in Mali and undermining the process of internal settlement," she said.
Several terrorists took 170 people hostage in a terror attack on the hotel in the Malian capital on Friday. Twenty-one hostages, including six Russians, three Chinese people, one American and a Belgian, were killed in the attack, which was claimed by an al Qaeda-linked Malian jihadist group Al-Murabitoun.
Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar declared a 10-day state of emergency in the country on Saturday. "Mali will not shut down because of this attack. Paris and New York were not shut down and Mali won't be. Terrorism will not win," Keita said, according to Reuters.
