Malian security forces evacuate a man from an area surrounding a siege at the Radisson Blu hotel in the capital city, Bamako, on Nov. 20, 2015.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Friday's terrorist assault on a hotel in the Malian<span style="color: Red;">*</span>capital points to the re-emergence of a radical insurgency in the West African<span style="color: Red;">*</span>nation less than three<span style="color: Red;">*</span>years after<span style="color: Red;">*</span>French troops helped the former colony drive out Islamic extremists.
“The government has become a little complacent,” said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jennifer Cooke, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who<span style="color: Red;">*</span>recently returned from a trip to Mali.
Mali security forces, aided by U.S. and French special forces, ended a daylong siege Friday of the Radisson<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Blu hotel in Bamako<span style="color: Red;">*</span>after alleged<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Islamic extremists<span style="color: Red;">*</span>seized<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as many as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>170<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hostages. At least 20 people were killed, Malian security forces said.
USA TODAY
Hostages freed as Mali hotel siege ends; at least 3 dead
Al-Mourabitoun, an al-Qaeda-linked<span style="color: Red;">*</span>group based in northern Mali,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>posted a message on Twitter saying it was behind the attack, Reuters reported. The claim could not immediately be verified.
If the group was responsible, it would suggest a growing competition for Islamic militants between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot that split off to form its own brutal terrorist force and now holds territory in Iraq and Syria.
Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have been vying for the allegiance of local extremist groups operating in the Middle East and Africa.
In Mali, the French still have a counterterrorism force of about 1,000, part of a larger regional force in the area. The United Nations also has a peacekeeping force of about 10,000 in the country. It borders Nigeria, which has been plagued by the terror group Boko Haram, which announced an alliance with the Islamic State earlier this year.
The Islamic State said it was behind last week's Paris terrorist attacks. It is not clear if the latest assault<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was connected in any way<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to the Paris massacre, given France's close ties to Mali. The two nations have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>close investment and security links<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for decades.
In 2011, France and other Western countries<span style="color: Red;">*</span>grew concerned about Islamic extremism taking root in the north, where a separatist movement was waging an insurgency against the central government.
The extremists began moving toward the more populated south, which raised alarms. That led to a French incursion in January 2013, which drove extremists out of the north and helped quell the insurgency.
More recently there have been small terrorist attacks in the south, which has raised concerns that Islamic extremists, some affiliated with al-Qaeda, may be making a comeback even if they no longer control much terrain.
“France has been so intricately involved in Mali,” Cooke said.
Because assailants targeted a hotel in the country’s capital, the attack appeared<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to be linked to terrorism,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>not the insurgency or criminal gangs who also operate in the north, analysts said.
“The fact that this hits at heart of country, it seems more purely ideological,” Cooke said. “This is the first big hit in the south that has to wake the country up.”
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