Mali hostage siege

Polo_Mint · 20-11-2015 11:19AM #1

I dont see a thread on this yet

Up to 170 hostages held at luxury hotel after 12 gunmen storm building.

Gunmen shouting Islamic slogans attacked a luxury hotel full of foreigners in Mali's capital Bamako early this morning, taking 170 people hostage, a senior security source and the hotel's operator said.

The raid on the Radisson Blu hotel, which lies just west of the city centre near government ministries and diplomatic offices in the former French colony, comes a week after Islamic State (IS) militants killed 129 people in Paris.

Yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Ireland was prepared to send additional Irish troops to Mali in order to relieve French soldiers who would be sent to relieve French forces to fight IS.

There are currently 10 members of the Irish Defence Forces in Mali and all are accounted for this morning, according to the Defence Forces.
Local website Malikahere reports that a "dozen men screamed Allah Akbar at the time of the attack".

Latest reports from Reuters indicate that Mali hotel gunmen have freed some hostages including those able to recite verses from the Koran
Local newspaper Jeune Afrique reports that three heavily-armed men entered hotel at 7am. The number of assailants and their reasons behind it remain unclear.

The identity of the Bamako gunmen, or the group to which they belong, is not known.

Northern Mali was occupied by Islamist fighters, some with links to al Qaeda, for most of 2012. Although they were driven out by a French-led military operation, sporadic violence has continued.

The security source said as many as 10 gunmen had stormed the building, firing shots and shouting "Allahu Akbar", or "God is great" in Arabic.
The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said several Chinese tourists were among those trapped inside the building.

The company that runs the hotel, Rezidor Group, said it understood that there were two gunmen.
"According to our information, two people are holding 140 clients and 30 employees," it said in a statement quoted by the BBC.

A senior member of the hotel's security detail said two private security guards had been injured in the early stages of the attack, which began at 7 a.m. (0700 GMT).

Witnesses in the area said police had surrounded the hotel and were blocking roads leading into the neighbourhood.

The U.S. Embassy tweeted that it was "aware of an ongoing active shooter operation at the Radisson Hotel," and instructed its citizens to stay indoors.
An Islamist group claimed responsibility for the death of five people last March in an attack on a restaurant in Bamako that is popular with foreigners.

biko · 20-11-2015 11:20AM

2015, the year the world's best religion really stepped up.

Penny Tration · 20-11-2015 11:22AM

Crazy. I hope there aren't any fatalities, but I'm fearing the worst.

The world is becoming a scary place.

Polo_Mint · 20-11-2015 11:24AM

Penny Tration wrote: »

Crazy. I hope there aren't any fatalities, but I'm fearing the worst.

The world is becoming a scary place.

9 Dead so far according to the Mirror

Looking at the following comment, This is what Boko Haram did before

Latest reports from Reuters indicate that Mali hotel gunmen have freed some hostages including those able to recite verses from the Koran

SEPT 23 1989 · 20-11-2015 11:26AM

The Chinese won't take to kindly to this

Samaris · 20-11-2015 11:28AM

Since the Paris thread is quite thoroughly on other lines and for people who want to keep up with what's going on;

Some background information;
The northern part of Mali was briefly taken over by Islamic extremists in 2012 after a coup. French soldiers went over and assisted in taking it back again. There's still a large French military contingent in the country, including a taskforce that was set up to deal with Islamic extremist threats like this, focussed in the small group of countries comprising Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger (former French colonies).

Nov. 20.
At around 7AM, somewhere around ten men stormed through a security barrier in the Radisson Hotel in Bamako, Mali. At the moment, nine people are believed to be dead, mostly French and Belgian, and several security staff were injured.

Usual yelling of Allah Akhbar and other such lovely warcries.

They have taken 170 people hostage, about 140 guests and 30 staff.

It's a big hotel, and was working near capacity; also has the reputation of the most secure hotel in the country. It's a luxury hotel in the business quarters of the city, so there's a lot of foreigners there too - which does seem to be a hallmark of these assholes in places that they want to destroy tourism to.

Latest updates include that they released several people who could recite passages from the Koran.

Bloody awful situation and we can only hope it's somehow resolved with less blood than was shed in Paris, but these *****s seem to like taking hostages not to negotiate with, but just to add to the trauma when they start killing them.

Sheeps · 20-11-2015 11:28AM

I'm sure the french troops in the area would only be too willing to step in and take care of these stupid fucks and send them packing on their way to Allah.

Polo_Mint · 20-11-2015 11:29AM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

The Chinese won't take to kindly to this

I think the Chinese are already going to get involved even before this

Beijing has vowed to bring ISIS to justice after the group said it had executed two hostages, a Chinese and a Norwegian.

ISIS said it had killed the two men, identified as Chinese national Fan Jinghui and Norwegian citizen Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad in its English-language online magazine Dabiq.

deadybai · 20-11-2015 11:32AM

This was reported this week.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/paris-terror-attacks/irish-troops-set-for-africa-to-ease-burden-on-france-34211426.html

nullzero · 20-11-2015 11:33AM

biko wrote: »

2015, the year the world's best religion really stepped up.

Maybe it's Islam's crazy years which other religions have had albeit in periods of history without convenient international travel, Internet and automatic weapons etc...
There needs to be clear a decisive leadership (which Islam doesn't have in the same way as Christian sects) to denounce this behavior and stop it spreading any further.
Ideally we would now be living in a world without any religions. I personally feel religion is the last major stumbling block for our evolution into a more enlightened period of human development. If aliens were watching us I'm sure our dependence on religion would be making us appear to them the way monkeys appear to us.

jimgoose · 20-11-2015 11:39AM

I'm wondering just how much of this crap these chimps are going to be able to get away with before some crowd like the Chinese hands them their collective head.

lawlolawl · 20-11-2015 11:39AM

nullzero wrote: »

Maybe it's Islam's crazy years which other religions have had albeit in periods of history without convenient international travel, Internet and automatic weapons etc...
There needs to be clear a decisive leadership (which Islam doesn't have in the same way as Christian sects) to denounce this behavior and stop it spreading any further.
Ideally we would now be living in a world without any religions. I personally feel religion is the last major stumbling block for our evolution into a more enlightened period of human development. If aliens were watching us I'm sure our dependence on religion would be making us appear to them the way monkeys appear to us.

Nah, dumb mother****ers will always find some other nonsense to kill each other over.

We'd end up with militant Game of Thrones fans killing Harry Potter fans or something.

Polo_Mint · 20-11-2015 11:45AM

Update

A French presidential source has confirmed that French people are in the hotel.

However no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, and it is not clear if there is a direct link between today’s attack and last week’s Paris shooting.

It is also being reported than at least seven Chinese hostages are being held.

Eponymous · 20-11-2015 11:46AM

lawlolawl wrote: »

Nah, dumb mother****ers will always find some other nonsense to kill each other over.

We'd end up with militant Game of Thrones fans killing Harry Potter fans or something.

Stoopid HP fans. Don't they know Winter is coming.

nullzero · 20-11-2015 11:47AM

lawlolawl wrote: »

Nah, dumb mother****ers will always find some other nonsense to kill each other over.

We'd end up with militant Game of Thrones fans killing Harry Potter fans or something.

True, it would be nice to think we could move away from being a species made up of dumb mother****ers though. With all the advances we have made in the last century we still have people using superstition to govern their lives.
At least the game of thrones and Harry Potter fans would know the books they would be fighting over were fiction instead of believing it was divine in nature.

flanzer · 20-11-2015 11:48AM

deadybai wrote: »

This was reported this week.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/paris-terror-attacks/irish-troops-set-for-africa-to-ease-burden-on-france-34211426.html

Thank you Lisbon Treaty. You're a treaty that just keeps delivering

nullzero · 20-11-2015 11:50AM

flanzer wrote: »

Thank you Lisbon Treaty. You're a treaty that just keeps delivering

Everything but the jobs Fianna Fail promised us for voting yes.

StringerBell · 20-11-2015 11:54AM

I hear one report saying that those who could recite from the Koran were being released, doesn't sound like IS but you would imagine they are (not directly) linked to IS or at least inspired by them, they wouldn't be happy to have apostates released though, not at all.

snubbleste · 20-11-2015 11:55AM

If people do perish, will we see the Malian flag projected on world landmarks?
Will we have a minute's silence at all football matches?

whatismyname · 20-11-2015 11:58AM

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-34815762

Qatari Al Jazeera TV has identified the group holding a number of people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali as the "Ansar al-Din (supporters of religion)" group.

The channel's correspondent in Mali described Ansar al-Din as an "extremist military group that seeks to implement Islamic Sharia in Mali".

flanzer · 20-11-2015 12:00PM

snubbleste wrote: »

If people do perish, will we see the Malian flag projected on world landmarks?
Will we have a minute's silence at all football matches?

Football fans better brush up on these lyrics

Mr_Muffin · 20-11-2015 12:21PM

Nothing like abit of terrorism to get your weekend started.

Weatherproof79 · 20-11-2015 12:22PM

Malian National Anthem before the Premiership games next weekend? Na? K

Polo_Mint · 20-11-2015 12:29PM

Weatherproof79 wrote: »

Malian National Anthem before the Premiership games next weekend? Na? K

You sound like a Broken record.

You've said the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over

Atlantic Dawn · 20-11-2015 12:33PM

I suppose the nationality of the hostages will determine what the global media response will be, cruel and all that is. If the Malain government try to hsndle it alone it likely won't end well.

discus · 20-11-2015 12:33PM

The french apparently spend 2.1 million euro a day on their campaign in Mali. That's ridiculous!

Polo_Mint · 20-11-2015 12:34PM

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I suppose the nationality of the hostages will determine what the global media response will be, cruel and all that is. If the Malain government try to hsndle it alone it likely won't end well.

I believe the French Army are in Mali

snubbleste · 20-11-2015 12:38PM

Polo_Mint wrote: »

I believe the French Army are in Mali

Did France re-invade Mali then?

RobertKK · 20-11-2015 12:39PM

nullzero wrote: »

True, it would be nice to think we could move away from being a species made up of dumb mother****ers though. With all the advances we have made in the last century we still have people using superstition to govern their lives.
At least the game of thrones and Harry Potter fans would know the books they would be fighting over were fiction instead of believing it was divine in nature.

The Khmer Rouge didn't believe in religion as they were atheist, thought it was rubbish, so they killed Buddhists and Christians in their country, and had killed an estimated 2.5 million people before they were stopped.

No religion in the world changes nothing, we are a mammal where most people are peaceful, but we have people who kill for many different reasons.
If we didn't have people who took illegal drugs, would we have drug gangs to start with for example, drug gangs who seem happy to try and kill their rivals.

Russia annexing Crimea and the subsequent war that happened in Eastern Ukraine - nothing to do with religion.

When people think no religion is the solution, they are failing to understand human beings and the behaviours that include killing that humans are very capable of and a natural instinct that most people never have to use, or even know they are capable of.
Most people know that it is likely they will never have to kill, but if in a situation where it it is be killed or kill, one will either try to kill if they have the option, try to flee, rather than be killed.

Human civilisation has advanced but we are still mammals at the end of the day with natural instincts.

So things like the Mali hostage situation would occur for some other reason, it is not like anti-religious groups with power were nice people, one could make an argument they were worst than religious groups, but that would be unfair - humans are humans whatever they believe or don't believe and humans are complex beings, can be nice, cruel, devious, generous, trustworthy, backstabber and so on.
I simply think blaming religion is a cop out as it doesn't explain why atheism has it's own death toll that is far worse in the last century than all religions put together.
There was the persecution of Christians in the early decades of the Soviet Union, where science was seen as the answer and religion as something holding it back.
Tens of millions of people ended up dead under that regime.
China's Mao similarly tens of millions of people dead.
To say religion is the problem when it is humans who are the problem,means the problem is not being addressed.
With Extremist Islam, one has to ask why are people joining such groups as Daesh, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and so on.
Most of these people seem to be people who lacks good prospects in normal society, and somehow they feel alienated from the people around them, with Paris we know some of them at least were born in Europe - in France and Belgium.
The problem is far deeper than religion, it is only one aspect as preaching hate leads to bad things happening, but there has to be other things going on for people to become radicalised, I think they are made to feel they are worth something, part of a group, like being part of a gang, and the solution is these people need to be got to and made feel they are worth something to society, that they belong and be given good prospects in life, because that is where I think the problem lies, these people are made to to feel worth something by the worst people possible, rather than in the society as in France or Belgium.

Polo_Mint · 20-11-2015 12:40PM

snubbleste wrote: »

Did France re-invade Mali then?

Bloomberg

U.S. and French military forces entered the Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako where gunmen took 170 hostages.
The troops, who are accompanied by Malian soldiers, are moving room to room and taking guests out of the hotel in the city center, the UN official said by e-mail from Bamako. The Associated Press reported that about 20 hostages have been freed, citing Modibo Naman Traore, a military commander. At least three people, including two Malians and a French citizen, were killed in the raid, CNN reported.

RobertKK · 20-11-2015 12:45PM

discus wrote: »

The french apparently spend 2.1 million euro a day on their campaign in Mali. That's ridiculous!

Well it is money spent well given terrorists were taking over the country before the French intervened to help their former colony.

Mali hostage siege

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