Mali hunts jihadist nightclub killers

Malian security forces mobilised Sunday
to hunt the killers of two Europeans and
three locals in a nightclub attack claimed
by jihadists — the first to target
Westerners in the capital.

A Frenchman, a Belgian, a Malian
policeman and two others died early
Saturday when a masked gunman burst
into the nightclub in the capital Bamako,
spraying automatic gunfire and throwing
grenades.

Al-Murabitoun, a jihadist group run by
leading Algerian militant Mokhtar
Belmokhtar, has claimed responsibility in
an audio recording carried by
Mauritanian news agency Al-Akbar.

The recording said the operation was
carried out by “brave combatants from
Al-Murabitoun to avenge our prophet
against the unbelieving West which has
insulted and mocked him”.

The investigation was expected to focus
not only on tracking the gunman but also
an accomplice witnesses reported seeing
during the attack and a black four-wheel
drive vehicle apparently used for the
getaway.

The United Nations peacekeeping force,
which has around 10,000 personnel in
Mali, said it has made investigators and
crimes scenes experts available to the
authorities.
Police earlier announced they had
arrested two Malians soon after but later
said the pair were not involved,
describing them as “not terrorists, but
bandits”.

Customers of La Terrasse, in the lively
Hippodrome district, said the gunman
arrived in the car and headed to the
upstairs restaurant and bar area where
they began shooting.

Reports later emerged that he had
already killed the Belgian and two of the
Malian victims before entering the venue.

As he left he lobbed two grenades at a
security patrol and one went off, killing
the policeman, witnesses said.

“The killer came here because there were
foreigners. He wanted to kill foreigners,
that’s for sure,” a waiter at the venue told
AFP.