At Least 27 Killed by Gunmen in Mali Hotel Siege; 20 Indians Evacuated Safely

Bamako:  Gunmen who stormed a luxury hotel in Mali's capital and seized more than 100 guests and staff today no longer have any hostages after a rescue operation by special forces, the Mali government has said.

"They currently have no more hostages in their hands and forces are in the process of tracking them down," security minister Salif Traore told a news conference following a stand-off of several hours at Bamako's Radisson Blu.

United Nations peacekeepers saw some 27 bodies on two separate floors of a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako that was attacked on Friday, a UN official told Reuters, citing preliminary information.

The peacekeepers saw 12 corpses in the basement of the hotel and another 15 on the second floor, the official said on condition of anonymity. He added that the UN troops were still helping Malian authorities search the hotel.

Earlier, all 20 Indians who were staying at the hotel were evacuated, the External Affairs Ministry said. The Indians who were rescued, work for an Indian business group based in Dubai and have a permanent room in the hotel.
 

The gunmen are believed to have entered the 190-room hotel around 0700 GMT in a car with diplomatic plates before seizing 170 guests and staff in a suspected Islamist hostage-taking.

Witnesses described "around a dozen" armed assailants, while security sources spoke of two or three "jihadist" attackers.

An African Jihadist group affiliated with al Qaeda has claimed responsibility. Al-Mourabitoun, a group based in northern Mali and made up mostly of Tuaregs and Arabs, posted a message on Twitter saying it was behind the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel. The claim could not immediately be verified.

Malian soldiers, police and special forces were on the scene as a security perimeter was set up, along with members of the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali and the French troops fighting jihadists in west Africa under Operation Barkhane.

Attacks despite peace deal

The shooting at the Radisson follows a nearly 24-hour siege and hostage-taking at another hotel in August in the central Malian town of Sevare in which five UN workers were killed, along with four soldiers and four attackers.

Five people, including a French citizen and a Belgian, were also killed in an attack at a restaurant in Bamako in March in the first such incident in the capital.

Islamist groups have continued to wage attacks in Mali despite a June peace deal between former Tuareg rebels in the north of the country and rival pro-government armed groups.
 

Northern Mali fell in March-April 2012 to Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups long concentrated in the area before being ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

Despite the peace deal, large swathes of Mali remain beyond the control of government and foreign forces.

The website of the Radisson Blu in Bamako says it offers "upscale lodging close to many government offices and business sites", serving as "one of the city's most popular conference venues" with "a stunning 508-square-metre ballroom and meeting rooms".

Radisson Blu, an upscale brand of the Radisson hotel chain, has more than 230 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide.

Story First Published: November 20, 2015 21:26 IST

Russia Pounds Islamic State Jihadists With 'For Paris' Bombs

Moscow:  Russia is pounding the Islamic State jihadists in Syria with bombs emblazoned with the words "For our people" and "For Paris" after Moscow vowed vengeance following the bombing of a plane over Sinai.

Russian television broadcast a video in which a man is seen scrawling "For our people!" and "For Paris!" in black pen on aerial bombs minutes before a warplane is set to take off from the country's airbase in Syria.

"For our people! For Paris! Pilots and technicians of #Hmeymim airbase sent a message to terrorists by airmail," the Russian defence ministry said on its official Twitter account.

"The armed forces are conducting an aerial campaign of retribution," the defence ministry said in a separate statement, adding the military had begun coordinating their operations with the French.

Earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to hunt down and "punish" those behind a bomb attack that brought down a passenger jet over Sinai last month, killing all 224 people, mostly Russian holidaymakers, on board.

After the carnage in Paris which claimed the lives of 130 people Putin and French President Francois Hollande agreed to "ensure closer contact and coordination" in their countries' operations in Syria.

The two leaders will meet at the Kremlin next week.

Unverified images have been circulating on the internet of Syria-bound US missiles bearing the handwritten inscription "From Paris with love".

Russia has been conducting a bombing campaign in Syria since September 30, the country's largest foreign intervention outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979.

The Islamic State group said it had bombed the Russian jet in Egypt in retaliation for the bombing raids.

Story First Published: November 21, 2015 03:46 IST

Suspected Mastermind of Paris Attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Dead: Reports

Washington:  Within hours of the French Ambassador telling NDTV that there were indications that Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud -- the suspected mastermind of the Paris terror attacks -- had killed himself, US daily Washington Post reported Abaaoud is dead.

The Post cited two unnamed intelligence officials, who said forensic experts confirmed it while combing through the aftermath wreckage at the building of a Paris suburb after a 7-hour siege. Reuters, which cited the Post report, said it could not independently confirm it.

"I have information that led us to suspect that he has committed suicide. I do not have any particular documents saying that but that is the first indication we have received," Ambassador Francois Richier said. "We need to wait for confirmation of the outcome of the operation."

A DNA test is expected to provide the final evidence.

Abaaoud, the 28-year-old member of the Islamic State terror group, was believed to be among the suspects who were holed up in an apartment during the seven-hour raid by the French police and army.

Abaaoud was initially believed to be in Syria.
 

Today's raid targeted Abaaoud, said police sources. Gunfire and explosions erupted at around 4.30 am this morning at Saint Denis.

Two terrorists were killed, including a woman who detonated a suicide belt. The woman, say unconfirmed reports, was Abaaoud's relative.

Abaaoud was thought to have pulled the strings from Syria for the attacks that killed 129 people in Paris on Friday.
 

Soldiers flooded into the area and heavily armed police were seen deploying along a street full of shops in the center of the district, while ambulances and fire engines filled the streets.

Some residents were evacuated, some still in their underwear, and authorities warned residents to keep away from windows.

The raid came as Europe was placed on high alert after footage from the scene of one of Friday's attacks in Paris, which killed 129 and injured 350, revealed a ninth suspect may have taken part.
 

Story First Published: November 18, 2015 23:55 IST

US's fight against ISIS finally gets a name: 'Inherent Resolve'

WASHINGTON: It may be less punchy than previous nicknames for US conflicts in the Middle East; remember Operation Desert Storm andits thunderous attacks on Saddam Hussein's occupation army; but the Pentagon has finally named its fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria: Operation Inherent Resolve. 

The naming process, which took weeks of quiet deliberation behind closed doors at US Central Command and at the Pentagon, is part of a package of administrative moves under way to organize a long-term military campaign. 

But that name, Inherent Resolve.  It sounds, well, inherently bland. 

It's less awe-inspiring than any of the names chosen for US military operations in Iraq over the past two decades such as Desert Shield, Desert Storm or Desert Fox, for example. It appears to convey the no-drama approach that marks President Barack Obama's style. 

The staff of Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the final decision on the name, said Dempsey spokesman, Col. Ed Thomas. Thomas offered no details about the process. 

Central Command, which is executing the campaign, took a stab at explaining the choice. 

"Inherent Resolve is intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the U.S. and partner nations in the region and around the globe to eliminate the terrorist group ISIL and the threat they pose to Iraq, the region and the wider international community," it said, using a common acronym for the Islamic State group. 

Military operations are routinely given official names, in part for administrative reasons. 

But they are meant also to bolster public support and international credibility. The US-led effort to protect Kurds who fled their homes in northern Iraq in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, for example, was called Operation Provide Comfort. A US military disaster relief mission in Bangladesh that same year was Operation Sea Angel. 

The US military's effort against Ebola in West Africa is called Operation United Assistance. The name for the US role in an international air campaign in Libya in 2011 was Odyssey Dawn. 

The naming of the current air campaign in Iraq and Syria comes as Obama and his military advisers wrestle with directing a coalition of partner nations toward a common goal: destroying the Islamic State group. It has been slow going thus far, with officials cautioning that it could drag on for months or years. 

The US has more than 1,400 military personnel in Iraq, mostly in Baghdad, but Obama has ruled out sending combat troops. The US says it has no troops in Syria. 

The US has a long and difficult history of military involvement in Iraq, beginning with the George H W Bush administration's initial response to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. 

That effort was dubbed Operation Desert Shield to deter Saddam from invading Saudi Arabia; in early 1991 that transitioned to a US-led air and ground campaign, Operation Desert Storm, which successfully expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait but left Saddam in power in Baghdad. 

In December 1998, in response to Saddam's refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors, President Bill Clinton launched Operation Desert Fox — four days of airstrikes against weapons installations and command headquarters in Baghdad. 

Promising to "shock and awe" Saddam's forces, President George W Bush launched Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, an air-and-ground campaign that quickly toppled Saddam's regime but opened the door to a homegrown Sunni insurgency that turned the war into an eight-year struggle. 

The practice of naming military operations goes back at least to World War II, when code names were assigned mainly to preserve security. The code names were classified, unlike the nicknames of modern operations. 

In a 1995 article in Parameters, a US Army War College academic journal, Gregory C Sieminski wrote that the Pentagon's Vietnam-era guidelines for naming military operations cautioned against counterproductive name choices, specifying that they must not express "a degree of bellicosity inconsistent with traditional American ideals or current foreign policy" or convey "connotations offensive to good taste or derogatory to a particular group, sect or creed." 

There should be no fear that Operation Inherent Resolve is too bellicose. 

Sieminski argued that careful naming of military operations can provide a public relations boost and help shape what he called a war of images. "In that war, the operation name is the first — and quite possibly the decisive — bullet to be fired," he wrote. 

Pak Taliban’s top 6 leaders pledge ISIS allegiance

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban are on the verge of collapse, as their six top commanders have announced allegiance to the ISIS, a video released on Tuesday revealed.

The announcement came at a time when the terror conglomerate has been experiencing divisions in its ranks.

"I am confirming my allegiance to (ISIS chief) Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi and would abide by all his decisions. Whatever is the situation, I will follow and obey his every instruction," Taliban spokesman Shaidullah Shahid said.

"This allegiance is neither from the Taliban or its leader Mullah Fazlullah. This is only from me and five other leaders," said Shahid. "I appeal to al-Baghdadi to accept my allegiance," Shahid said. Fazlullah has supported ISIS but has not declared his allegiance, which lies with Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

The fresh defection is a serious setback for the Taliban. It had earlier lost tribal Mehsud faction, which had provided some of toughest foot soldiers and major monetary support to the organization before the military offensive in North Waziristan.