US citizen is among the 27 victims of the terrorist attack in the capital of Mali

With the help of their American and French colleagues, the Mali intelligence officers completed a seven-hour operation to free hostages taken by terrorists at the Radisson Blu Hotel in the capital, Bamako.

According to a UN official, 27 of 170 hostages died. Among them, as confirmed by the US State Department, is one American citizen.

12 bodies were found in the basement of the building, another 15 - on the second floor. At least two attackers killed.

"According to our information, two people locked 140 guests and 30 people of the staff," - said in a statement The Rezidor Hotel Group, which owns the hotel in Bamako.

According to other reports, ten people carried out the attack. Eyewitnesses say that the attackers who approached the building in a car with diplomatic numbers shouted "Allah Akbar".

The radical Islamist group Al-Murabitun, linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack in the African country. In May, 2015, it was reported that she swore allegiance to the "Islamic State", but soon the leader of Al-Murabitun, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, denied this information.

Information about the involvement of the group to capture the hotel is checked. At the same time, Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, identified the attackers as militants of the Ansar ad-Din group (Front of Defenders of the Faith), an extremist group that is trying to establish the rule of Sharia in Mali.

The jihadists who seized the hotel reportedly demanded the release of members of their group and the cessation of attacks on their forces in the north of Mali.

The President of Mali thanked on Twitter the security forces of Mali and other countries for their support in storming the hotel. The French authorities sent an elite special forces of the national gendarmerie from the anti-terrorism unit GIGN to Mali.

The US Special Response Forces and a detachment of UN peacekeepers stationed in Mali also took part in the storming of the hotel.

The Radisson Blu 190 rooms. It is known that the hotel is owned by American businessmen, and it is very popular among foreigners working in Mali.

Air strikes of the French Air Force helped the army of Mali in the fight against the Islamists. Many experts assumed that France would take advantage of the situation in order to expand and strengthen its presence in its former colony. However, in July 2013, security control in the country passed into the hands of UN special forces.

13 November France itself faced a terrorist attack that killed 129 people. Friday the number of victims Parisian attacks increased to 130 people - one of several dozen seriously wounded citizens died in a Paris hospital.

Responsibility for the attack on Paris took the extremist group "Islamic State".