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Mali. >> very much so. very much so. al qaeda affiliated group occupy a huge swath of territory in the northern part of the country. that was an area where fighters traversed into libya. so much conflict going on there as well. it was a transit area for fighters into libya. mostly connected again to al qaeda. no shortage of islamist terrorists operating in that region. a number of attacks, you mentioned one within the last year in mali. a frequent target for terror groups there. as of now, no known isis connection. the reason we wonder is because of what happened one week ago last friday night...

Third dead man. abaaoud was in there, the cousin was in there, who is that third person? could it be the eighth attacker, salah abdelsalam? who we know is still at large? that is probably unlikely because we know he was last spotted after the attacks on his way to belgium. but all of this brings home, wolf, is one central theme here. this is an ongoing operation, an ongoing investigation. the network is ever expanding. you heard john berman there talking about 800 raids. we know more than 100 just last night alone. so this is really an enormous operation and there is no sense that it's coming ...

Reporters just pointed out these are all late-breaking situations. we've been in touch with our people on the ground in mali throughout the day. we have confirmed that no americans were lost in this barbaric terrorist attack. we don't see anything right now to connect anything that happened in mali to paris. but obviously we're continuing to follow-up very aggressively. and as jim just mentioned we have about 25 u.s. special forces on the ground. and we understand that some of them played a heroic role in helping to evacuate some of the casualties and the hostages today. >> do we know -- or do...

Officials saying there was a big delegation there for peace process. this may have links to the local situation in mali which is limping toward peace because of that threat of islamic affiliated groups. islamic fundamentalist affiliated groups that were threatening the capital some years ago. significant french interests in the y. france has drawn down its troop levels within mali. in times of peace, i have seen french special forces in mali and elsewhere in that region operated both operations. the french military is linked to the region as well. particularly in mali with the close cultural a...

Military presence there. well, u.s. africa command has tweeted out, saying that a small group of special forces is involved in the rescue efforts at that hotel. we also know that the french president has ordered the deployment of 50 special forces from france to help with those operations in addition to the current efforts by the malian security forces. the united nations has also deployed some additional resources. it does maintain a force in mali, part of its u.n. mission there. so, a lot of different moving pieces to this puzzle. the operation is ongoing, and we know that at least, accordin...