Punish the Cross-Worshippers: Al Qaeda Slaughters Dozens in Militant Attacks at African Hotel

by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | January 16, 2016 10:14 am

Al Qaeda has left at least 27 dead[1] in the West African city of Burkina Faso. Police say 126 people have been freed and four Jihadists have been killed in the operation against al Qaeda-linked extremists who seized a hotel in the capital Ouagadougou. The attack on Friday night left 27 people dead, including the extremists who took control of the Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino Cafe. Security forces stormed the building on Saturday morning, more than five hours after the siege began. Three extremists were killed at the hotel and a fourth was killed when security forces cleared out[2] a second hotel nearby. Two of the four were women, Burkina Faso’s president said. At least 10 bodies were discovered in the Cappuccino Café, located next to the hotel.

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From Fox News:

Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré said Saturday that 23 people were killed when an Al Qaeda-affiliated terror group seized an upscale hotel in the capital of Ouagadougou.

Internal Affairs Minister Simon Compaore announced the siege was over and that 126 hostages had been freed and three jihadist gunmen were killed as forces regained control of the Splendid Hotel. He said at least 10 bodies were discovered in the Cappuccino Café, located next to the hotel.

Kaboré later said a fourth gunman had been killed and that two of the extremists were women.

Al Qaeda of Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed responsibility for the attacks Friday, according to SITE Intelligence Group which monitors jihadist activity.

In a message posted in Arabic on the militants’ “Muslim Africa” Telegram account, it said fighters had “broke into a restaurant of one of the biggest hotels in the capital of Burkina Faso, and are now entrenched and the clashes are continuing with the enemies of the religion.” Fighters who spoke by phone later “asserted the fall of many dead Crusaders,” AQIM said, according to SITE. The Jihadists shot people at point blank range and then set the establishment on fire. Al Qaeda’s statement[4] was directed at a foreign audience, which it addressed as “the Cross-worshipers, the occupiers of our lands, the looters of our wealth and the abusers of our security.” The statement said that fighters from Al Mourabitoun, a jihadist group led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar and aligned with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, struck the hotel because it “is frequented by staff of the nations of global disbelief.” It went on to say the attack was intended “to punish the Cross-worshipers for their crimes against our people in Central Africa, Mali and other lands of the Muslims, and to avenge our Prophet, God’s peace and blessings be upon him.”

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