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Unidentified
gunmen attacked the resort, Le Campement Kangaba on Sunday,
killing two of the guests. Security forces have rescued 36
residents, including 13 French citizens.
"This was without doubt a terrorist attack," Security Minister
Salif Traore told Radio France International. "The
anti-terrorist forces arrived on the scene immediately
afterwards. Five terrorists were killed ... The operations
continued throughout the night."
Traore said the militants had some accomplices who had not been
killed or detained. On Sunday night, authorities reported that
two of the assailants had been killed.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
French troops and a 10,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force have
been battling to stabilize Mali, a former French colony, ever
since France intervened in 2013 to push back jihadists and
allied Tuareg rebels who had taken over the country's desert
north a year earlier.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb and other Islamist groups have
claimed attacks on Western targets in Mali and the wider West
Africa region in the past.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to the leader of Mali
after the attack and pledged France's full support for the
country, Macron's office said on Monday.
One of the resort guests killed by the gunmen was a
French-Gabonese citizen, while the other has not yet been
identified.
(This story separates two words, paragraph 2.)
(Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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