The gunmen stormed the US-owned hotel, which is popular with foreign businesses and airline crews, shooting and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic.
Hannibal: The only reason why this is headline news, is because it’s a US-owned hotel and the so-called terrorists are Arabic, which goes great with their Islamic terrorist state narrative.
Mali’s Interior Minister Salif Traore said 30 hostages had been freed so far.
Three people had been shot dead and two soldiers were wounded, but their lives were not in danger, he said.
Air France says 12 of its crew have been successfully freed in the rescue operation; Turkish Airlines says five of its crew are out, but two remain in the hotel.
Hannibal: As you can see, none of the victims are black African, which is why this is such a big fuss. Nigeria’s suffered from a worse fate the other day and no one seemed to care.
Among the other guests are 20 Indian nationals and reports of up to 10 Chinese citizens.
The UN peacekeeping force said it was supporting the operation as Malian special forces freed hostages “floor by floor”.
Hannibal: More non-black victims. So of course, their lives are worth more than black Africans. All hands on deck to save these people.
“We have sealed all the exit points of the hotel, so be assured none of the hostage takers will be able to escape,” the interior minister told reporters outside the Radisson Blu.
Earlier, Mali’s state TV reported that 80 hostages had been freed.An Ivorian guest said she and six other people were escorted out by security forces as the gunmen rushed “toward the fifth or sixth floor”.
“I don’t know where to go. I’m tired and in a state of shock,” Monique Kouame Affoue Ekonde told the AP news agency.
Earlier, a security source told Reuters that some hostages who were able to recite verses of the Koran were being freed.
Hannibal: More islamic propaganda.
In August, suspected Islamist gunmen killed 13 people, including five UN workers, during a hostage siege at a hotel in the central Malian town of Sevare.
Hannibal: UN workers. So probably innocent but their occupation of Africa, definitely not.
France, the former colonial power in Mali, intervened in the country in January 2013 when al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened to march on Bamako after taking control of the north of the country.
Hannibal: As this paragraph states, Mali used to be under the oppressive arm of France. The french colonists or terrorists, for lack of a better term.
BBC Monitoring’s Africa security correspondent Tomi Oladipo says the attack comes just days after Iyad Ag Ghaly, the leader of the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine, called for attacks on France and its interests in Mali.
Hannibal: Here they are successfully tying the Mali attacks to the France terror attacks. Great job mainstream media.
His al-Qaeda-linked group was among those ousted from northern towns in 2013.
Hannibal: Yet, we know that al-Qaeda is a group create by the USA.
Full story reported by BBC