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Burkina siege ends, new assault underway

Saturday, 16 January 2016 11:26 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 16 January 2016 11:28 AM ]

Soldiers evacuate an injured man from the Splendid Hotel during attacks by al-Qaeda militants in Ouagadougou, Jan. 16, 2016. (AFP photo)

Security forces have ended a siege laid by al-Qaeda militants to a hotel and a nearby restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital, but another assault is underway at a second hotel next to the eatery.

“The attacks on the Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino are over. But an assault is ongoing at the Hotel Ybi” next to Cappuccino, Burkinabe Interior Minister Simon Compaore told AFP of the early Saturday assaults in Ouagadougou.

The twin terrorist attacks killed nearly two dozen people from 18 countries, a security source said, while the security raids took out three attackers, whom the minister identified as “an Arab and two black Africans.”

A total of 126 people, including at least 33 wounded, have been freed, the source said.

In what appeared to be preparatory violence setting the stage for the attack on Splendid Hotel, the 147-room building’s main entrance and many vehicles on the street outside were set on fire.

The al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack on the first hotel.

Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore (seen below) said security forces also killed a fourth attacker at Ybi, adding that the assailants included two women.

A gendarmerie officer identified the fourth assailant as another al-Qaeda militant.

The attackers were members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Mali-based al-Mourabitoun group, which is led by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, according to US-based monitoring group SITE.

Last November, the group held a nine-hour-long siege at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in the Malian capital, Bamako. More than 20 people were killed.

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