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Some of them ethnic twaregs fighting against the government which is in bamako. and it wasn t until french forces, the french military, the government of francois hollande, intervened militarily that those islamist troops were rolled back. they were never fully defeated. they still have bases in the south, and islamist supporters have been doing hit-and-run attacks where they can in mali and elsewhere. that is the claim at this stage. we still are getting there is still an unclear picture about what exactly is happening on the scene. state television in mali is showing pictures of forces inside the lobby, so the hotel has been breached. state television says that 80, at least, foreign hostages from the hotel they could be guests, staff have been taken out to safety. the u.s. military says 25 personnel are insisting in the rescue effort, trying to bring civilians to safety once they are outside. the military suggesting that ....
Also there was a frn float crews there and concerns about this many if not it it if generally sending a message perhaps to president hollande. i think it s possibly a message to president hollande but it really is a hotel for westerners. and this entire undertaking by the terrorists is basically to say that their way of life is what should take precedence, not our way of life. and indeed if bamako, mali is a predominantly muslim country. we re talking about muslim against muslim. if people could recite passages of the core rakoran, they were . ....
Terms of the city itself? and what do you make of these reports that in order to get there, there were some diplomatic documents and diplomatic license plates on the car that were used? reporter: so, the diplomatic plates. there have been multiple accounts of that, mostly coming from local staff at the hotel. we have not been able to confirm that ourselves, but they say that diplomatic plates were arrivi arriving, and that would not be surprising, because this hotel was about to host a peace conference. as we were just saying, there s been a civil war in mali since 2012 when the islamists took over the north, and this was an effort, u.n.-brokered peace conference about to start. so, there were a lot of people arriving in the city at the hotel, in the area associated with this conference. so, if you wanted to attack the conference, if you wanted to attack vip targets, diplomatic plates would be a good way to do that. the hotel itself is really the place in bamako. there are not many l ....
This is perhaps the most luxurious are the most well known. it was a place where u.n. officials often went, airline crews always or generally stayed there on their overnights in and out of bamako. journalists in our case with we went there stayed numerous occasions. it is without it is the place in bamako to stay if you are arriving on a business trip or government trip. there s also word that peace talks were due to start in this hotel, starting very soon. that could also play into what issin folding. since i ve been there, i can give you a little bit of the layout of the hotel. there is security, or at least there was there was when i was there at the gate. you move in, there as a central elevator bank, a staircase that ....
Climb up around but if you were looking for a target to attack westerners or high-profile visitors to bamako, this would be the place. > . hernan from ivory was in mali recently and has opinion in touch with reporters throughout the area. what are you learning? reporter: i m just talking to reports are there on the ground. the situation has been very volatile at the moment. there s been reportedly 80 hostages that have been freed. we dent know if this is really happening at the moment. ....