Hotel in sevare and parts of the cocotry were occupiedy islamist f fhters linked to al qaeda. France has 1,000 peacekeeping troops even though they recently took over security operations. Again, special forces now surround that hotel. Possibly going in, trying to end this siege. Robin and george. Very fluid situation, martha, thanks. We have on the phone right now Olivia Salgado fromm the u. N. We know thehe took 170 hostage and 20 released including three u. N. Personnel . Yeah, thats correct. Ththree u. N. Personnel were extracted this morning. So, w what we we know about why the hostages were released . There werenconfirmed reports thathe gunmen were actually going and asking people to recite pieces o of the koran . Thats an information i don have right now. What i know is that three people from the hotel with ak47 around 7 00 a. M. Thi morning and, of course, immediately the Security Forces from mali were deployed araround the years and two years that the u. N. Is supporting mali a