A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, June 20, 2017
At least two dead after attack at Mali tourist resort near Bamako
Malian
government says ‘situation is under control’ at Le Campement resort
east of capital after reports of gunshots and rising smoke
Flames
rise following an attack where gunmen stormed Le Campement Kangaba
resort in Dougourakoro, to the east of the Malian capital Bamako.
Photograph: Reuters Tv/Reuters
At least two people have been killed after a tourist resort near Bamako, the capital of Mali,
was attacked. A spokesman for the country’s security ministry said one
of the dead was a French national but the nationality of the other
person killed was not known.
Malian troops and soldiers from France’s Barkhane counter-terrorism
force were called to Le Campement in Dougourakoro, a resort popular with
westerners east of Bamako. Residents nearby reported hearing shots
fired while smoke billowed into the air.
At least 32 people were rescued and 14 others injured, the security ministry said.
“Security forces are in place. Campement Kangaba is blocked off and an
operation is under way,” said a security ministry spokesman, Baba Cisse.
“The situation is under control.”
Moussa Ag Infahi, director of the national police, saidthat three of the assailants had been killed while a fourth escaped.
Witness Boubacar Sangare was just outside the compound during the
attack. “Westerners were fleeing the encampment while two plainclothes
police exchanged fire with the assailants,” he said. “There were four
national police vehicles and French soldiers in armoured vehicles on the
scene.” He added that a helicopter was circling overhead.
Mahamadou Doumbia said a militant on a motorcycle entered the area
around 3:40pm and cried “Allah Akbar” before jumping off and running
toward the pool area.
“Then a car with three jihadists entered the resort and they started to
fire their weapons,” he said. “A French soldier who had come for the
weekend but had his gun shot and wounded a jihadist.”
A spokesman for French forces in Mali declined to immediately comment.
As night fell, witnesses saw smoke rising from the Campement Kangaba,
which features three swimming pools and is a popular escape from the
Malian heat.
It was not immediately clear what was burning. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
The west African country has been battling a jihadi insurgency for
several years, with Islamist fighters roaming the north and centre of
Mali. In November 2015, gunmen took guests and staff hostage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako in a siege that
left at least 20 people dead, including 14 foreigners. Responsibility
for that attack was claimed by Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
A state of emergency has been renewed several times since the Radisson
Blu attack, most recently in April, when it was extended for six months.
In 2012 Mali’s north fell under the control of jihadi groups linked to
AQIM that hijacked an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising, though the
Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation in
January 2013. But jihadis have mounted numerous attacks on civilians and
the army, as well as on French and UN forces still stationed there.