Mali hotel attack:

 Islamist group says it shares responsibility

By Jason Hanna, Ed Payne and Steve Almasy, CNN

Updated 2324 GMT (0724 HKT) November 20, 2015 | Video Source: CNN

(CNN)Assailants with guns blazing on Friday attacked a hotel hosting diplomats and others in Mali's capital, leaving at least 21 people dead and trapping dozens in the building for hours, officials in the West African nation said.

Malian and U.N. security forces launched a counterattack at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako and escorted guests out. By late afternoon, no hostages were believed to remain in the building, army Col. Mamadou Coulibaly told reporters.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a written statement that the attack had ended.

Twenty-one people were killed, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. At least six people injured in the attack have been hospitalized, Mali Health Minister Marie Madeleine Togo told state broadcaster ORTM.

Al Mourabitoun, an Islamist militant group, claimed it was jointly responsible for the attack, according to Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar. The group announced it carried out the attack with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the news agency reported.

Al Mourabitoun said the attack was carried out in retaliation for government aggression in northern Mali, Al Akhbar reported. The group also demanded the release of prisoners in France.

Video aired by ORTM showed security personnel leading people out of the building.

"We extend our deep condolences to the families and loved ones of those who have been killed in this heinous attack. Our thoughts and prayers also are with those who have been injured," Price said.

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The assault began about 7 a.m., when two or three attackers with AK-47 rifles exited at least one vehicle with diplomatic plates and entered the hotel with guns firing, Salgado said.

The attack, Salgado said, came as the hotel hosted diplomatic delegations working on a peace process in the landlocked country, a former French colony that has been battling Islamist extremists with the help of U.N. and French forces.

The Radisson chain said that as many as 170 people -- 140 guests and 30 employees -- had been there as the attack began.

Mali's struggle for stability

Witness describes scenes at Mali hotel attack 02:09

The hotel attack, and the diplomats' meeting, came in a country that has struggled with Islamist extremists, especially since 2012.

Taking advantage of a chaotic situation after a military coup in March 2012, Islamist extremists with links to al Qaeda carved out a large portion of northern Mali for themselves. When the militants tried to push into the south, France, at the Malian government's request, sent thousands of troops in 2013.

The ground and air campaign sent Islamist fighters who had seized the northern region fleeing into the vast desert. The United Nations then established a peacekeeping mission in Mali that year, hoping to keep the government secure enough to continue a peace process.

Though military pressure largely drove Islamist militants from cities, they have regrouped in the desert areas, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

"Unfortunately, this (hotel) is a likely target" because it is popular with international guests such as U.N. workers, Pham said.