18 bodies recovered from Mali hotel
The bodies of 18 people were recovered as special forces stormed a hotel in Mali's capital seized by gunmen on Friday, a foreign security source told AFP.
"Eighteen bodies were found," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that French special forces from neighbouring Burkina Faso were in the hotel and "participating in operations alongside Malians".
Gunmen went on the rampage at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Friday, seizing 170 guests and staff in a suspected Islamist hostage-taking.
Witnesses described "around a dozen" armed assailants, while security sources spoke of two or three "jihadist" attackers.
The men are believed to have entered the 190-room hotel around 0700 GMT in a car with diplomatic plates. Many guests were in their rooms when the attack began.
Automatic gunfire was heard at the hotel in the city centre, with a security ministry spokesman saying at least three hostages had been killed. Their identities were not yet known.
Two freed female hostages told AFP they saw the body of a light-skinned man lying on the hotel floor.
Guests from around the world have been caught up in the hostage-taking, which comes a week after the Paris terror attacks in which 129 people from 19 different countries were killed.
AFP
Photo: AFP