BREAKING: Muslim Terrorists Attack Popular Burkina Faso Hotel, Take Hostages

Tweet

UPDATE (6:16 CST) RT News just tweeted: "Burkina Faso minister, foreigners, US & French soldiers may be among hostages - Reports"
Many news agencies are now posting. There are conflicting reports of deaths and whether or not car bombs may have been set off as a prelude. Soldiers appear to have the hotel surrounded. From the Daily Mail:

Terror in Burkina Faso: 'Hostages held' after two car bombs explode outside upmarket tourist hotel as masked jihadi gunmen battle security forces in the street 

• Eyewitnesses say two car bombs exploded at 7.30pm local time 
• Masked gunmen then stormed the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou 
• Local media reported at hostages have been taken and several people have died 
• Business district hotel is used by UN staff and westerners 
• Security forces reportedly exchanged fire with the men at the scene

Police are battling with masked jihadi gunmen near a four-star business hotel in Burkina Faso's capital tonight, amid an ongoing hostage situation. 

Two car bombs exploded outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou's business district before several gunmen stormed the hotel. 

Security forces arrived as the men fired in the air to disperse the gathering crowd and soon engaged in a fierce gunfight with the suspected jihadis as cars burned around them. 

Witnesses said the attackers claimed to be from ISIS, but an Al Qaeda affiliated group nhas reportedly claimed the attack, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
International newsagency Associated Press has reported that several people have died in the attack, according to a restaurant employee and a police officer was shot trying to reach the Splendid hotel opposite where the attackers remain, according to officers. 

A senior official with the national gendarmes said suspected Islamist fighters had taken an unknown number of hostages. 

'It is continuing at this time. We are trying to know how many attackers they are to better coordinate our actions. Hostages have been taken. The operation could take several hours,' the officer said asking not to be named. 

A journalist on the scene told CNN that French and US soldiers arived at the hotel. 

Eyewitnesses said two car bombs exploded at approximately 7.30pm local time before up to six masked men stormed the hotel. 

Witnesses reportedly said the attackers claimed to be from ISIS 

The four-star hotel is reportedly used by UN agency staff and is near a cafe called Cappucino, said to be popular with expats, although U.N. spokesman in Ouagadougou, Emile Kabore, told CNN he did not believe any U.N. staffers are currently staying at the hotel. 

A witness who gave only his first name, Gilbert, said that when security forces first arrived, they turned around rather than confront the attackers. 

'But we know that the gunmen won't get out of the hotel alive,' he said. 'Our country is not for jihadists or terrorists. They got it wrong.' 

The French Embassy in Burkina Faso released a statement on its website calling incident a 'terrorist attack and urged its citizens to return home and to avoide the hotel, the Cafe Capuccino and Kwame N'Krumah Avenue. 

The U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou tweeted: 'We are closely following the situation downtown.'