Mali is hunting for suspects wanted over the jihadist siege at a luxury hotel that left 27 people dead, mostly foreigners, as the president warned that nobody could hide from terrorism.
The government declared a state of emergency after the bloody nine-hour hostage-taking at Radisson Blu Hotel in the capital Bamako on Friday, exactly a week after the Paris attacks.
The Al-Murabitoun group, an Al-Qaeda affiliate led by notorious one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, nicknamed the “Uncatchable” or “Mr Marlboro”, claimed the attack.
Gunmen went on the rampage from the early morning, shooting in the corridors and taking 170 guests and staff hostage.
Mali’s president has however questioned claims that al-Mourabitoun, an al-Qaeda linked group, was responsible for last week’s assault on a luxury hotel in the capital Bamako.
In his first interview since Friday’s attack, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told Al Jazeera that despite early speculation, his intelligence suggested that another group, the Macina Liberation Front, was responsible for it.
“Initially it was said that this was the work of al-Marabitoun but tonight all indications are it is the Macina Liberation Front who are behind this,” he said.
“They’re acting as if Macina was a country or territory that needed to be liberated. At this precise moment I have no more details.”
The victims of the attack included six Russians, three Chinese, two Belgians, an American, an Israeli, a Senegalese and a member of the Malian Special Forces.
“Authorities are pursuing at least three people over the attack in the former French colony,” a security source told AFP.
Keita, who vowed in a televised address on the day of the siege that “terror would not win”, visited the site on Saturday.
“Nowhere in the world is one safe from these barbarians from another era,” he said, adding that the attackers had decided to break with humanity.
Mali begins three days of national mourning on Monday.
