Mali hotel attack: Islamist group says it shares responsibility

Assailants with guns blazing on Friday attacked a hotel hosting diplomats and others in Mali’s capital, leaving at least 21 people dead and trapping dozens in the building for hours, officials in the West African nation said.

Malian and U.N. security forces launched a counterattack at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako and escorted guests out. By late afternoon, no hostages were believed to remain in the building, army Col. Mamadou Coulibaly told reporters.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a written statement that the attack had ended.

Twenty-one people were killed, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. At least six people injured in the attack have been hospitalized, Mali Health Minister Marie Madeleine Togo told state broadcaster ORTM.

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