Security forces in Burkina Faso ended a siege at hotel and a restaurant that were stormed by Al Qaeda linked gunmen, killing three extremists and freeing 126 people, but another assault was ongoing at second hotel nearby.
A security source said at least 22 people were killed in the extremists’ assaults on the Burkinabe capital’s four-star Splendid hotel and the nearby Capuccino restaurant, which are popular with U.N. 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 extremists — 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.