Security forces in Burkina Faso retook a hotel in the capital on Saturday from al Qaeda fighters who seized it in an assault that killed two dozen people from at least 18 countries and marked a major escalation of Islamist militancy in West Africa.

Until Friday's attacks the landlocked nation, an ally of Western governments against jihadist groups in the arid reaches of the southern Sahara, had largely been spared the kinds of attacks that have plagued its neighbors.

The assault follows a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako which killed 20 people, including citizens of Russia, China and the United States.

The Ouagadougou assault, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), signaled an expansion of operations for Islamist militants who are forging new alliances and stepping up their activities, echoing the growth of Islamic State in the Middle East.

"The situation we're experiencing since yesterday in Burkina Faso is unprecedented," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said when he visited the scene of the attack. "These are vile, cowardly acts and the victims are innocent people"

"We call upon the Burkinabe people to be vigilant and courageous because we must include terrorist acts as an integral part of our daily struggle," he continued.

Kabore said 23 people from 18 different nationalities were killed in the assault on the Splendid Hotel and a nearby casino popular with Westerners and French soldiers based in Burkina Faso. The authorities gave no further details of the victims.

Gabriel Mueller, an Austrian aid worker staying at a different hotel, described the early scenes around the Splendid as a "complete bloodbath".



http://www.reuters.com/article/us-burkina-attacks-idUSKCN0UT2HC

It's high time our luxurious hotels in nigeria, improve on their security, because it seems this rag head are targeting hotels this days...

people yansh go expose gain o....Men that left wives at home all in the name of business meeting

skimarvel:
people yansh go expose gain o....Men that left wives at home all in the name of business meeting

humans like you died and that's all you could say,you don't need to also kill to be a terrorist sympathiser... RIP to the dead