Burkina Faso, AP, 16 January 2016 – Burkina Faso and French forces killed a fourth extremist Saturday after freeing 126 people and killing three other attackers to end the seizure of a luxury hotel by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, Burkina Faso officials said.
In addition to the extremists, at least 27 people were killed in the attack at the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, the capital, the president said. The fourth militant was killed when security forces cleared out a second hotel that was nearby.
Two of the three attackers were identified as female, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said on national radio.
The Islamic extremists stormed the Splendid Hotel and a nearby cafe Friday night.
Gunfire ramped up early Saturday as gendarme and military forces fought to take back the building which had been blackened by a fire during the assault.
The security forces took control of the Splendid Hotel and were searching nearby hotels to be sure no other extremists were hiding. The search continued even after security forces found and killed a fourth extremist at the Hotel Yibi, the president said.
About 33 people have been wounded and the operation freed 126 people after the morning call to prayer signaled a new day in this West African nation, said Minister of Security and Internal Affairs Simon Compaore.
Cars and motorbikes were burned, and overturned chairs and shards of glass lay scattered near the hotel. Onlookers were kept far away from the fighting that continued into daylight.
The harrowing attack was launched by the same extremists behind a similar siege at an upscale hotel in Bamako, Mali in November that left 20 dead.
Dozens of French forces arrived overnight from neighboring Mali to aid in the rescue. One U.S. military member was embedded with French forces at the scene, and the United States was working to help provide France with surveillance and reconnaissance help, according to a U.S. senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Burkina Faso’s Internal Affairs Minister Simon Compaore said that 10 bodies were found inside the Cappuccino Cafe, a restaurant located next to the Splendid Hotel.
“We know that the gunmen won’t get out of the hotel alive,” said one witness, who gave only his first name, Gilbert. “Our country is not for jihadists or terrorists. They got it wrong.”
Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country, had for years been largely spared from the violence carried out by Islamic extremist groups who were abducting foreigners for ransom in Mali and Niger. Then last April, a Romanian national was kidnapped in an attack that was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso.