Hooded militants slay five in Malian restaurant attack

BAMAKO/PARIS: A Sahara-based Islamist group has claimed responsibility for a rare attack in Mali’s capital that killed five people, including two foreigners, highlighting continued volatility in the African nation two years after France helped retake territory from al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The attack on La Terrasse, a popular restaurant with expatriates in Bamako, left a French citizen, a Belgian security officer and three Malians dead and nine others wounded, a senior Malian security official said. “There were two individuals who were armed and hooded. One burst into the La Terrasse restaurant and opened fire on people.

“Then he got into a vehicle in which the other was waiting,” senior police officer Falaye Kanté said.

“As they fled… they shot a Belgian man who was in front of his house. He’s dead. Not far away they came across a police vehicle and threw a grenade, killing the driver.”

Mali’s desert north, where French forces wrested control of territory from separatist rebels and Islamist fighters, is plagued by frequent attacks. But this is the first such attack for years in Bamako, located in the south, raising fears the capital will become targeted more often by militants.

Mauritanian news website Al-Akhbar posted an audio recording on social media of a man it said was a spokesman for al-Mourabitoun, a militant group. “We in the al-Mourabitoun announce our responsibility for the latest operations in Bamako, which were carried out by the brave knights of the Mourabitoun to avenge the Prophet Muhammad against the infidel West, which ridiculed our Prophet, and to avenge the killing of our brother Ahmed al Tilemsi,” the man said.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and his government pledged to bring the attackers to justice.

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande’s office said the French leader had spoken with Keïta and that they had agreed on new “common measures” to reinforce security in Mali.

As they fled they shot a Belgian man in front of his house