Al Qaeda Terrorist attack leaves many dead and injured

 
A total of 27 people have died in an Al-Qaeda attack on a luxury hotel in Burkina Faso.
Armed terrorists seized the Splendid Hotel and a nearby cafe in the capital Ouagadougou after letting off bombs last night, with people from around 18 different countries caught up in the assault.
Around 33 people were wounded. Around 150 people were evacuated, the French ambassador tweeted.

Environ 150 personnes de 18 nationalités différentes évacuées et traitées par le centre de soins primaires #AttaqueOuaga #Burkina #Lwili

— Gilles Thibault (@G_Thibault_Fr) January 16, 2016

This morning special forces took back the building after heavy gunfire, freeing 126 hostages and leaving four attackers dead including an Arab and two black Africans, Burkina Faso’s minister of security said. Two of the attackers were women.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident an Austrian doctor and his wife were reported kidnapped this morning near the country’s border with Mali.

French gendarmes tend to wounded people (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Officials declared the siege of the Splendid officially over but continued to search nearby hotels to see if other extremists were hiding there.
Terrorists targeted the Splendid because it is popular with foreigners including UN staff, saying the attack was a message ‘written by the heroes of Islam with their blood and body parts’, The New York Times reports.
A doctor who treated the wounded said victims told him attackers targeted Westerners. However, the nationalities of those killed in the assault were not immediately known.

French soldiers surround the Splendid hotel (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Security forces gather near the hotel this morning (Picture: AP Photo)

Around 10 bodies were found at the Cappuccino cafe next to the hotel, where customers are believed to have been gunned down in scenes reminiscent of November’s attacks in Paris.
Vehicles including cars and motorbikes were burned, and overturned chairs and shards of glass lay scattered about.
Police kept onlookers far back from the scene which raged on throughout the night.

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Security officers take their positions outside the hotel (Picture: Reuters)

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa (Picture: Google)

Fire and smoke rising (Picture: Reuters)

The same group which laid siege to an upscale hotel in Mali in November is believed to be behind this attack.
Dozens of French soldiers arrived from neighboring Mali to help the rescue, along with one US solider embedded with them.

A soldier stands near the Hotel Splendid (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility as the attack was ongoing. Fighters who spoke by phone boasted of ‘the fall of many dead Crusaders,’ according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
West African Burkina Faso is a largely Muslim nation. Terrorism has historically been rare, but last April a Romanian national was kidnapped in the first attack of its kind in the country.
Since its longtime president was ousted in a popular uprising in late 2014, the country has been in growing turmoil.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/16/at-least-20-killed-in-al-qaeda-attack-on-luxury-hotel-in-burkina-faso-5626403/#ixzz3xPgfWdh4

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