At least 20 people have been killed in the deadly terror attack in Burkina Faso after al-Qaeda gunmen attacked a popular hotel in the capital last night.
A unit of Bukinabe special forces assisted by around 30 French special forces and an American soldier have stormed the Splendid Hotel in Ougadougou and reportedly killed three of the gunmen.
Security forces managed to rescue 126 of the hostages trapped inside the 147 bedroom hotel, with 33 of the survivors wounded from the attack, the Burkinabe Interior Ministry confirmed.
At least ten of the victims in the terror attack were gunned down at the Cappuccino Cafe, situated next door to the hotel. The attack has been claimed by al-Mouribatoun, an al-Qaeda group based in the Sahel region of northern Mali.
'There was someone in front of me and they shot him and he fell onto me,' one woman said.
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| SPLENDID HOTEL BEFORE THE ATTACK |
Another survivor said he escaped through a broken window and that the interior of the hotel was filled with smoke and blood.
'People were lying on the ground and there was blood everywhere,' he said. 'They were shooting people at point-blank range. When they left they set fire to the place and the smoke started to suffocate me and the other survivors.'
Initial reports said the masked militants set off suspected car bombs outside the hotel at 7.30pm before they stormed the hotel taking an unknown number of hostages.
The men fired in the air to disperse the gathering crowd and soon engaged in a fierce gunfight with the suspected jihadis as several cars burned around them.
The West African country's foreign minister Alpha Barry earlier said security forces surrounded the hotel before they attempted to rescue hostages from the 146-room hotel, which is frequented by Westerners.
A US defense official said France, the former colonial power of Burkina Faso, had requested US intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance support in the city, and at least one US military member was giving 'advice and assistance' to French forces at the hotel.
A source told the Associated Press that there are about 75 US troops in Burkina Faso: 15 assigned to the embassy and about 60 assisting the French military. The US is working to help provide the France with surveillance and reconnaissance help.
Approximately 30 French troops were working with 40 Burkinabe soldiers, Olympia de Maismont, a French journalist for the radio station Radio France Internationale, said.
'I am about 50 meters from the hotel. I can see both French and Burkinabe soldiers, and they are preparing for the assault,' she said, according to the New York Times. 'There is truly a concentration of troops. We are seeing more and more arrive, and we see that they are studying plans — which I assume are the plans of the hotel.'
De Maismont said she saw two bodies carried out of the hotel, as well as a woman who appeared to be in a state of shock.
'She had a hard time walking. The soldiers were holding her up by her arms, but at the same time she did not seem to be wounded, so I believe she was in shock,' she said.
Injured witnesses said the attackers claimed to be from ISIS, but a local Al Qaeda affiliated group called AQIM has reportedly claimed the attack on the capital in West Africa, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement released on an encrypted messaging app. The group said the fighters have killed as many as 30 hostages.
The organization claims that the operation was 'revenge against France and the disbelieving West', according to New York Times foreign correspondent Rukmini Callimachi.
The group said it targeted Splendid Hotel because it is popular with foreigners, saying the attack as sent a message 'written by the heroes of Islam with their blood and body parts', according to The New York Times.
The statement was addressed to a foreign audience as 'the Cross-worshipers, the occupiers of our lands, the looters of our wealth and the abusers of our security', saying the attack was intended 'to punish the Cross-worshipers for their crimes against our people in Central Africa, Mali and other lands of the Muslims, and to avenge our Prophet, God's peace and blessings be upon him'.
Of those wounded is French national Leila Alaoui, who is undergoing surgery, according to New York Times contributor Aida Alami.
French television network France 24 reported that at least 20 people have been killed in the attack. Two survivors, who did not give their names, were interviewed by the station.
In a message posted in Arabic on the militants' 'Muslim Africa' Telegram account, it said fighters had '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.'
The same AQIM affiliate, Al-Mourabitoun, was responsible for the attack on the Radisson Hotel in Mali's capital last November, which left 27 people dead.
A hospital chief said at least 20 people have been killed and another 15 wounded in the ongoing assault.
'For the dead, we do not have a precise figure, but there are at least 20 dead,' said Robert Sangare, the head of Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.
'We have had at least 15 wounded with bullet wounds and others who suffered injuries during the panic to escape.'
Sangare said one European woman being treated at the hospital told him the attackers appeared to target white people.
The hotel is sometimes used by French troops with Operation Barkhane, a force based in Chad and set up to combat Islamist militants across West Africa's vast, arid Sahel region.
The government has not ruled out calling for help from French special forces stationed in the country, Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Alpha Barry told Reuters.
Russia's Honorary Council in Burkina Faso, Anna Rachina-Kulibali, said foreigners were among the dead, 'possibly including Europeans'.
A police officer was shot trying to reach the Splendid hotel opposite where the attackers remain, according to officers.
A senior official with the national gendarmes said suspected Islamist fighters had taken an unknown number of hostages.
'It is continuing at this time. We are trying to know how many attackers they are to better coordinate our actions. Hostages have been taken. The operation could take several hours,' the officer said asking not to be named.
Witnesses said two car bombs exploded at approximately 7.30pm local time before up to six masked men stormed the hotel.
The four-star hotel is reportedly used by UN agency staff and is near a cafe called Cappucino, said to be popular with expats, although U.N. spokesman in Ouagadougou, Emile Kabore, told CNN he did not believe any U.N. staffers are currently staying at the hotel.
A witness who gave only his first name, Gilbert, said that when security forces first arrived, they turned around rather than confront the attackers.
'But we know that the gunmen won't get out of the hotel alive,' he said. 'Our country is not for jihadists or terrorists. They got it wrong.'
The French Embassy in Burkina Faso released a statement on its website calling incident a 'terrorist attack' and urged its citizens to return home and to avoid the hotel, the Cafe Capuccino and Kwame N'Krumah Avenue.
The US Embassy in Ouagadougou tweeted: 'We are closely following the situation downtown.'
Al-Qaeda It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, though jihadists have attacked hotels before in neighboring Mali, including a devastating attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in November that left 20 people dead.
The attack would be the first in Burkina's capital by Islamists in a country that is diverse in religious terms and has a population that is around 60 per cent Muslim, according to government figures.
It comes as a setback to efforts by African governments, France and the United States to prevent attacks that have destabilized the region.
It would present a significant challenge to President Roch Marc Kabore, who was elected in November 2015 as Burkina Faso's first new leader in decades.
The French embassy in December warned its citizens against traveling to a national park in eastern Burkina Faso after reports that Malian jihadists were threatening to kidnap foreigners.
An Islamist militant group Al-Mourabitoun said in May, 2015, it was holding a Romanian man kidnapped from a mine in northern Burkina Faso the previous month.
Around 50 unidentified gunmen attacked a Burkina Faso gendarmerie brigade near the country's western border with Mali in October 2015, killing three in an attack the then government blamed on the leaders of a failed coup one month before.
Burkina Faso has endured bouts of political turmoil since October 2014 when veteran President Blaise Compaore was overthrown in a popular protest, but has been largely spared violence by Islamist militants who have staged attacks in neighboring Mali.
Two militants killed 20 people from nations including Russia, China and the United States at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital on November 20, 2015, before being killed by the security forces.
Three Islamist groups including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed that attack, the most prominent by militants who are based in the north of the country and have staged a series of attacks over the last year.
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