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| A soldier stands guard outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18 , 2016. In the wake of a weekend attack that killed up to 32 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. |
OUAGADOUGOU,
Burkina Faso (AP) -- Two jihadis can be seen on video standing
next to burning cars a little more than an hour after an assault began
on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso's capital, raising new questions
Tuesday about why it took so long for security forces to find and kill
the militants blamed for at least 30 deaths.
The
video shot by The Associated Press shows one man wearing a tunic and
turban, carrying what appears to be a Kalashnikov rifle around 8:45
p.m., a little over an hour after they first attacked the Cappuccino
Cafe. A second armed man can be seen wearing a large vest, and they are
later joined by a third man with a pale scarf on his head. Explosions
can be heard in the distance.
On Tuesday,
authorities in Burkina Faso also released new details on how they
ultimately killed the three men who were part of the North Africa branch
of al-Qaida, working in connection with Algerian jihadi Moktar
Belmoktar and his forces. Officials acknowledged though that it was more
than four hours after the attack began before security forces tried to
enter the hotel.
In the darkness of night and
panic amid gunfire, some witnesses late Friday mistakenly identified at
least two of the jihadis as women, and some even said they believed
there was a fourth attacker. Burkina Faso's Security Minister Simon
Compaore said Tuesday that several people have been detained and
questioned but he declined to give further details, citing the ongoing
investigation.
In a statement published by
SITE Intelligence Group, though, al-Qaida identified three "mujahedeen
brothers" as the ones responsible: Al-Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad
al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari.
Some
of the victims openly expressed frustration Tuesday that it had taken
authorities so long to find the attackers. Allassane Baguian, an
American who was attending a meeting on the fourth floor of the hotel at
the time of attack, was shot in the leg four times and another bullet
just skimmed his head.
"No one was prepared
for these attacks," he said. "So we were under gunfire from 7:45 p.m.
until 3 a.m. It's God who saved us because these people had the time to
carry out their crime," he said. "That three people could challenge a
country, it's incomprehensible."
Witnesses
said the assault began around 7:30 p.m. Friday as dozens of people
gathered for dinner and drinks at the Cappuccino Cafe and its terrace.
The attackers then ambushed the Splendid Hotel next door.
Natacha
Ble, a 23-year-old waitress from Ivory Coast who had only been working
for a few weeks at the restaurant Taxi Brousse across the street, said
she saw the three men coming but never imagined they were jihadis,
saying they looked more like traditional herders from the Peul ethnic
group in their tunics than Islamic militants.
"I
started wondering what these Peul herders were coming to do in a place
like this?" she recalled. "Then one of them headed toward the Cappuccino
restaurant and began opening fire."
Within 30
minutes the president of Burkina Faso had asked the French ambassador
for help, according to a French official who spoke on condition of
anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. It would be
four more hours, though, before French special forces arrived at the
scene to help flush out the attackers and Burkina Faso's military was
awaiting their help.
The security forces
initially thought that the attack on the cafe was meant to divert them
from the hotel as the main target, said a Burkinabe security official,
speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to
journalists. In the end, none of the 30 people who were killed were at
the hotel.
Around 1 a.m., about 50 security
forces including the French, Burkinabe and an American tried to enter
the hotel but were fired upon and one French special forces member took a
bullet in the leg.
Under the cover of an
armored vehicle, the forces entered the hotel and began searching the
rooms floor-by-floor but didn't find the jihadis inside.
Authorities
now know that they had left the hotel and were holed up in the Taxi
Brousse restaurant across the street after its employees had fled, the
Burkinabe security official said. From there they continued to fire
their weapons and security forces came under fire when leaving the hotel
around 4:30 a.m.
"In leaving the Splendid
Hotel, one armored vehicle came under fire from the direction of the
Taxi Brousse across the street," the official said. "One attacker even
came out of the restaurant to shoot at the vehicle."
It was then that Burkinabe and French forces realized that the attackers had been hiding at the restaurant.
"Finally
the other two attackers came out to fire upon us and it was around 7
a.m. that we killed the last two on the terrace of the Taxi Brousse," he
added.
