At least 20 people have been killed and others were being held hostage Friday in an ongoing al-Qaeda attack on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso popular with United Nations staff and westerners.<\/p>\n
A fire raged in the main entrance of Ouagadougou’s four-star Splendid hotel and screams could be heard from inside as Burkinabe forces prepared an assault to rescue hostages still trapped five hours after the assault began.<\/p>\n
Officials said French forces could join a counter-attack on the hotel, while a US defence official said Washington would potentially provide surveillance.<\/p>\n
The attack comes less than two months after a jihadist hostage siege at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in the Malian capital Bamako in November, in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.<\/p>\n
“We know that there are victims and there are hostages. Currently the area is blocked by security forces waiting for an assault to free the hostages,” Foreign Minister Alpha Barry told AFP.<\/p>\n
Around 10 vehicles were on fire in the streets near the hotel in Ouagadougou, not far from the city’s international airport.<\/p>\n
The head of the city’s main hospital confirmed at least 20 dead and another 15 injured, and witnesses said the assailants were still holed up in the 147-room hotel.<\/p>\n
A restaurant opposite the hotel was also attacked and a staff member, reached by telephone, said several people had been killed, but was not able to give an exact toll.<\/p>\n
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to US-based monitoring group SITE.<\/p>\n
The “mujahideen brothers” of AQIM “broke into a restaurant of one of the biggest hotels in the capital of Burkina Faso, and are now entrenched and the clashes are continuing with the enemies of the religion”, SITE quoted the group as saying.<\/p>\n
Sporadic exchanges of fire could be heard between the attackers and security forces near the hotel, which often has UN staff among its guests and has security checks at its entrances. Firefighters were also at the scene.<\/p>\n
Barry said Burkina Faso may enlist the support of French special forces, who have a permanent presence in the country, to deal with the unfolding situation, and a US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington could provide drone-based surveillance.<\/p>\n
An AFP reporter at one point saw three men clad in turbans firing at the scene on Avenue Kwame Nkrumah, one of Ouagadougou’s main thoroughfares.<\/p>\n
A witness also reported seeing four assailants who were of Arab or white appearance and “wearing turbans”.<\/p>\n
The French embassy said on its website that a “terrorist attack” was underway and urged people to avoid the area. An Air France flight from Paris to Ouagadougou was diverted to neighbouring Niger.<\/p>\n
The Burkinabe army meanwhile revealed that an armed group had carried out an attack earlier in the day near the border with Mali, killing two people.<\/p>\n
“In the afternoon around 14:00, around 20 heavily-armed unidentified individuals carried out an attack against gendarmes in the village of Tin Abao,” the army said in a statement, adding that an o<\/p>\n
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Source: news24.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 20 people have been killed and others were being held hostage Friday in an ongoing al-Qaeda attack on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso popular with United Nations staff and westerners. A fire raged in the main entrance of Ouagadougou’s four-star Splendid hotel and screams could be heard from inside as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n