Where this is happening and why. Nobody knows but they are saying, islamists, quote unquote, going floor to floor. There are three dead already. A hostage situation brings back the situation of one week ago that led to a slaughterhouse at bataclan and france, pro active pushing back al qaeda from 201314, a success there, and last year einvolved in a slightly smaller, more narrow special forces operation and theyve been very successful. This hotel, we understand, is one where many foreign flight crews go, air france crews go, other crews go when overnighting and obviously foreigners at the hotel. So it could be revenge for this, or the second wave of different attacks in different places. One little bit of more favorable news in a horrible situation, obviously. The early estimate of ten gunmen reduced. It may be two or three. Nevertheless, theres chaos inside that hotel. Now we have amin trie, own as restaurant. Heard this as it began. Amin, if you can hear me, what did you hear . Take us through it. Hi, chris. Lets say that, some people have be been seen two terrorists, that went to the, in front of the hotel and the security there, then they gained access to the hotel. After that, they start they made some some inside deal. We dont know yet. Really starting through there. Around 8 00 we heard a huge explosion coming from the hotel. We dont know yet it was inside or outside the hotel. Later, the terrorists went to the roof of the hotel with the hostages. There were 170 hostages there. Actually, now arm few of them have been released. As we talk now there is a police force on the hotel trying to, to get the hostages, and okay. Amin, thank you very much. Please, stay safe. We want to learn whats going on, obviously, but safety should are paramount. Stay at a safe distance. You know these things. Please check back with us if there are developments you are able to observe. Again, safety is imperative. This involves the initial context, a group of insurgents go in, lock the place down. Theyre going floor by floor, its fluid, but in the situation like this, what are the countermeasures. This is a mumbaistyle attack. Right . In fact, many parallels. A number of gunmen taking over a hotel. We talked how european, u. S. Officials worried about just that kind of attack for months. We saw that in effect on the streets of paris on friday. It a great way to grab attention, to kill a lot of people, and to hold their attention for some time. Thats one thing to keep in mind. The other thing to keep in mind, terrorism is a competitive game. Right . We dont know of any tie to isis to this. In fact, its more likely to be al qaeda and the islamic maghreb. Al qaeda conscience how isis has stolen the attention. Right . Its stolen the world stage, and weve seen this before. One group attacks. The other still tries to establish its relevance. Weve seen al sa rauhi to perk up from his cave in afghanistan, pakistan and say were still relevant and call on attacks themselves. So its potentially competitive as well. What a perverse style of competition. Take us through this a little more. As you were just saying it is very different groups that operate in mali, and what government sources tell me is that they believe ansar hadean could be behind this. Took over the northern part of mali. This group was at the forefront of it, and its leader, eyad iagalley went in and pushed the groups back vowing to revenge and threatening french interests. Now, he is an ally to the south of the country. You have to remember, mallsy a country split in two. Theres the north in which the french operates and continues no the south where the siege is happening in bamako. And malis ally is a man who is a very vocal preacher who very recently these last few weeks called for attacks against french interests, and sources within the malian government believe these groups could be involved. These are very different groups. Take us through the ropes a mali, a transit port into more hotbed areas, ralgeria. This is exactly why it happened. In the wake of the libyan revolution, all of these arms and men float across the border in mali. Extremely poorest borders, hard to control and vast, and these groups came in, tremendous amounts of arms, huge amount of power and the malian army was overrun, why a push took place in bamako in 2012. They were no longer able to fend off the islamists and being massacred in northern mali that led to more chaos and indeed the taking of country by the Islamist Groups. In terms how to stop this situation, local forces are assisted by u. N. Forces. Some type of u. N. Meeting going on inside this hotel. The numbers, the procedures were not sure. We do know the u. S. President in kuala lumpur has been briefed on the situation. Can you take us through what is going on in this briefing . What are you being told . Hi, chris. We havent gotten a response whats going on from the white house. What they said was that the president was briefed while on this trip by his National Security advisers susan rice and asked this National Security team to keep him apprised of this situation. We expect to hear from him soon after a bilateral meeting with the malaysian prime minister. So he may address the situation then. What weve seen throughout this trip, which is supposed to be all about economics, his pivik to asia, but it has been darkly, darkly overshadowed by terrorist attacks and then tough questions about what to do next, and how to keep the American People safe, chris. Okay. All right, michelle, thank you very much. As you get information in terms of what the white house understands in this ongoing situation, please, let us know and ill get back to you. But lets not forget where we are now. We are in paris. One week to the day since these horrific attacks that certainly served as a wakeup call to the world and the depth and breadth of the fight against isis and there is still a lot of ongoing activity. There are new developments that came as a function of this operation that took out the socalled planner of these france attacks. So lets bring in Fred Pleitgen monitoring developments. Fred what do we see today . Obviously not a good marker in time, one week now since one of the worst days in french history. What do we know . Reporter new developments in the case. Cctv Surveillance Video that turned up from a subway station close to where one of the getaway cars were. The black fee asset leon and the alleged mastermind of this attack bp we know from there he then made his way back to that apartment and be also new information that were getting from that as well, that apparently theres been a third body discovered inside that apartment, amale body and dont know who that body belongs to, no positive dna tests on that yet. They are also still saying they dont have positive dna tests for the female body but we believe its his cousin but keeping it in paris, deceased . The third one added today, keeping it at three at this point. We have to keep in mind, weve been seeing this, its difficult to operate there. Still throughout the day yesterday they were controlled explosions going on. The french put out a warning to residents, a few explosions. Dont worry. Very difficult for them to work. Right now three inside that apartment. To ivan watson in belgian. Point of context. Reluctance to call this guy a mastermind is not just the factor of heroization also that authorities feel you dont have to be a genius to plan Something Like what happened here and there are many others that may be able to step into his role and do so quickly. Another reason for minimizing his relevance, but that said, theres an eighth suspect from the paris attacks, an eighth terrorist on the run, they believe he was in belgian and that where our Senior International correspondent is. Whats the latest from there . Reporter thats right. I mean, authorities here and across europe are still looking for this fugitive suspect from the paris attacks. 26yearold salah abdeslam, born here in belgium. His older brother blew himself up in the attacks and a Third Brother retained for questioning but released by investigators a couple days after the attacks. He has spoken out, again, to cnn now, after initially making a Public Appeal for his fugitive brother to turn himself in. Hes given another statement. Ill read it now if saleh is still alive i want to tell him abaaoud is dead. He doesnt have to be afraid nap is an older brother of the fugitive suspect of the paris attacks, saleh abdeslam, briefly questioned by french authorities after the paris attacks while apparently driving from paris towards belgium, he has since disappeared, though his vehicle was later found here in brussels by belgian authorities. Chris . All right, ivan. Stay with us for any developments as they go on. Another added to the victim pile of what they did is this mans family. Were now in an impossible situation of justifying their connection to him. So we see that from france theres certainly a spiderweb situation being uncovered here, whether its belgium what we heard about in germany, the arrests in turkey, whats now going on in mali, northwest africa and italy. There have been reports consistently since the attack theres was coordination by italian officials to chase down those that fled and now situations that may have been originated in italy itself. For that, cnn deal la gallagher joining us live from rome. Delia what is the situation there . Reporter well, chris, italy is on alert level two, their highest security level, outside of being under direct attack. The Italian Foreign minister said last night in they do have names of five potential terrorist suspects in italy, whom they are working to identify. Thats the extent of what he will say on the matter at this time. The u. S. Embassy here in rome issued a warning to u. S. Citizens identifying three potential sites for terrorist attacks. St. Peters basilica, the opera house in milan and the cathedral urges those to be vigilant around synagogues, hotels and restaurants as well. The interior ministry, chris, says theyve moved 1,000 military to guard sites around italy. The police say that they want to give a visible security presence here and throughout the country, and id can atoa that, in the vatican, around important sites we are seeing beefed up security. Not necessarily new, chris. We saw this in september of last year and in january when there were isis videos specifically mentions rome as a potential target and of course french authorities saying firmly they have no credible information about potential attacks at this time, chris. Delia gallagher, thank you very much. Good news bad news. Good news, seeing rapidly increasing coordination among countries sharing information in the fight against terror. Bad news, a lot of situations for them to do so. Right now we are following breaking news out of mali, northwest africa in respect has been what is called a terrorist attack there on a hotel in the capital. Some unknown number of gunmen entering in, taking more than 160 guests and employees hostage. There are reports of deaths already. 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They came and immediately they started shooting at people, before entering the hotel. We had three u. N. Personnel inside the hotel amongst many other people, they extracted. What we are doing right now is that we are supporting the malian authorities on the side with our Quick Reaction forces. We also deployed emergency equipment and trucks with ambulances, too, and i can give you many more details, because you have to understand that the operation is currently happening as i speak. Apparently the people entered the compound of the hotel with diplomatic plates. Thats what i can tell you. Diplomatic plates in cars. Explain what that means, olivier, and also the nature of this operation youre talking about. Is this an intention to negotiate or is this just about a countersiege to take out whos in there and rescue as many as possible . Take us through those two points. I cant tell you what the intention is. What i can tell su thyou is peo entering with ak47 in the hotel, im not sure they are here to negotiate anything. Regarding the diplomatic plates, you have many, Many International organizations operating in bamako, and in mali, so thats just diplomatic plates. A fake, or a stolen car, i dont have details on that. All right. Just so were clear. Are you saying that the gunmen showed up in vehicles with diplomatic plates . Yes, thats the latest information i got. Yeah. All right. Olivier, thank you. The communications arent great. I want to know, is there any additional detail you can give on what they were saying as they entered . Any context for that . I dont have the confirmation on this. I heard many stories, but i cant confirm anything so far. You have to understand, its happening as we speak. All right. Olivier, thank you very much. Thank you very much. The communications arent great but thank you so much for reaching out to us. Let us know if you have nmore information so we can stay apprised, but, please, stay safe in doing so. Spokesperson for the u. N. Mission in mali. Thats what we know right now. It is active and ongoing. It a terror situation that is how its being reported. Two to three gunmen entering this hotel in the mali capital. Obviously there with deadly intentions. People have lost their lives. There is an active operation to try to get others out and take out the gunmen. More as we get. Now, help me christiane, while i was trying to listen, you were trying to explain what he was saying to me. The men showed up with diplomatic plates on their vehicles. Thats what hes saying, basically, its just this whole business of stolen identities and how these people, whether in paris or mali now are using stolen identities. He said and confirmed again when you asked him again, that these people came in with ak47s in vehicles that were carrying diplomatic licenses, and he further explained that bamako is the center of a lot of diplomatic, even u. N. Vehicles have special license plates. So theres a lot of that opportunity, and obviously, he believes that they were stolen vehicles. They came in and so got through all of the checkpoints, of course. You know, just like these people with stolen passports have done through european borders, one of them at least committing this crime. That seems to be the news he was telling us as well as theres an operation under way to try to end this. This is a wellknown, very powerful tactic weve seen in afghanistan, pakistan and elsewhere, stealing police uniforms, military uniforms so you get past, here in this case going under cover of diplomats. Its very powerful. We know security think is very high. Its a great way to get in. The other point i would make, you see police forming a cordon around the hotel. We know this from u. S. Counterterrorism forces. The whole response has changed dramatically. That used to be a model. Saw that a little buy the bataclan. That doesnt work, the understanding, because theyre going to start killing. We saw that in bataclan. I dont think they have any intention of negotiating. Absolutely not. This new York Police Department trains its officers now, you get to the scene you go inside. Dont wait for the Tactical Team or negotiate if you can because you know waiting sadly means more bodies. Part of the analysis of what happened here, the reason i was asking, when the authorities, the assets going onscene, there was some deliberation, some delay in terms of what to do at the bataclan as opposed to going in as you arrived. True . Of course once they realized they were dealing with people whose intention was to massacre rather than hold people hostage, then the situation had to be made to go in, and the point about the stolen cars and identities have very important when talking about a part of bamako where all the government ministries are, controls are super tight. Checkpoints all over the malian capital and in front of this particular hotel you have to go through several security checks. Your car, the people inside are check, properly check before anyone can get inside this hotel. Obviously they had to find way in and the way was diplomatic plates and vehicles that could get through the checks unnoticed. Heres the status. Right now theres an ongoing described terror situation in mali, in the capital in a hotel. Gunmen showed up in vehicles with diplomatic plates which may explain their ease of entry and ak47s and laying siege to this hospital, inside at least 150 or upwards of that number between guests and employees. It has become deadly already. Mali officials and their assets as well as u. N. Assets are responding right now. It is an active operation. We have latebreaking details coming in as i speak. Lets take a quick break. Stay with cnn for more. vo some