Mali hunts hotel attack suspects
Bamako, 22 Nov - (ANA) - Malian security forces are hunting three suspects connected to the attack on a hotel in the capital, Bamako, on Friday, in which 19 were killed.
Two militants were also killed, after special forces stormed the hotel, freeing dozens of trapped guests.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliate, al-Murabitoun, said they carried out the attack.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has declared a 10-day state of emergency and three days of national mourning.
But speaking outside the luxury Radisson Blu hotel a day after it was attacked the president said that the country remained open for business.
"Mali is not and will never be a closed border zone. Paris isn't, Geneva isn't, New York isn't, Moscow isn't," he said.
Gunmen entered the hotel on Friday morning, shooting and driving their vehicle through a security barrier, one eyewitness said.
Most of the hotel guests and staff were freed hours later when Malian special forces, French special forces and off-duty US servicemen stormed the hotel to end the siege.
It is not clear if the suspects now being sought took part in the attack or were accomplices.
The exact number of gunmen is also not known. Eyewitnesses said up to 13 entered the hotel shooting, however the company that runs the hotel, Rezidor Group, said on Friday that only two attackers were involved.
The victims:
    Two Belgians, including Geoffrey Dieudonne, an official at the parliament in Belgium's Wallonia region.
    Three Chinese, Zhou Tianxiang and Wang Xuanshang and Chang Xuehui were executives from the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp, the company said in a statement on its website.
    US national Anita Ashok Datar, 41, was in Mali working on projects involving family planning and HIV. Ms Datar, the mother of a 7-year-old boy, was a senior manager at Palladium Group, an international development organisation.
    Six Russians were killed, all employees of the Volga-Dnepr airline, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Volga-Dnepr reported that the six were Stanislav Dumansky and Pavel Kudryavtsev, mechanics; Vladimir Kudryashov, a flight radio operator; Konstantin Preobrazhensky, a flight engineer; Sergey Yurasov, a load manager, and Aleksandr Kononenko, a navigator.
    Israeli education consultant and executive Shmuel Benalal, who is reported to have been in Mali to work with the government.
A US national also died, and US President Barack Obama said the attack was yet another reminder that the "scourge of terrorism" threatened many nations.
UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said three Britons who had been in the hotel were safe.
President Keita said Mali would "do everything to eradicate terrorism" in the country. (ANA)

FA/ANA/22 November 2015----------