OUAGADOUGOU: At least 22 people were today killed in Burkina Faso after Al Qaeda linked gunmen stormed a hotel and a restaurant and took hostages following which security forces gunned down three jihadists and freed 126 people, but another assault was ongoing in a nearby hotel.
A security source said at least 22 people were killed in the jihadists’ assaults on the Burkinabe capital’s four-star Splendid hotel and the nearby Capuccino restaurant, which are popular with UN staff and foreigners.
Thirty-three of the 126 people freed from the Splendid hotel by Burkinabe troops backed by French special forces were wounded.
“The attacks on the Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino are over. But an assault is ongoing at the Hotel Ybi” next to the Cappuccino, Interior Minister Simon Compaore told AFP.
A total of “126 people, including at least 33 wounded, have been freed. Three jihadists — an Arab and two black Africans — have been killed,” he added.
Twenty people have been confirmed dead, but the toll could rise further as Compaore told AFP earlier in the night that firefighters had seen 10 bodies on the terrace of the restaurant.
“We don’t yet have a total tally of the dead. The Burkinabe forces are still combing the hotel,” he said.(AGENCIES)
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