Gunmen kill at least 17 in attack on Burkina Faso restaurant

By Thiam Ndiaga

 

An armoured vehicle opens fire in the direction of a restaurant following an attack by gunmen on the restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in this still frame taken from video August 13, 2017. REUTERS/Reuters TV

 

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Suspected jihadists killed at least 17 people and wounded eight during a raid on a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital on Sunday, the communications' minister said, as security forces at the scene tried to end the attack.

 

A Reuters witness saw customers running out of the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in Ouagadougou as police and paramilitary gendarmerie surrounded it amid gunfire.

 

"This is a terrorist attack," Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told a news conference. He said the toll was provisional because the security operation was still underway.

 

A woman said she was in the restaurant celebrating her brother's birthday when the shooting started.

 

"I just ran but my brother was left inside," the woman told Reuters TV as she fled the building.

 

Burkina Faso, like other countries in West Africa, has been targeted sporadically by jihadist groups operating across Africa's Sahel. Most attacks have been along its remote northern border region with Mali, which has seen attacks by Islamist militants for more than a decade.

 

Thirty people were killed when gunmen attacked a restaurant and hotel in Ouagadougou in January 2016 in an incident claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

 

A new al Qaeda-linked alliance of Malian jihadist groups claimed an attack in June that killed at least five people at a luxury Mali resort popular with Western expatriates just outside the capital, Bamako.

 

African nations launched a new multinational military force to tackle Islamist militants in the Sahel last month, but it won't be operational until later this year and faces a budget shortfall.

 

(Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew Hay and Paul Tait)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-14

Hmm, Turkey recently said it would end all support for Syrian anti-government terrorists, payback? CIA also ordered to stop funding, arming and training ISIS there as well. Seems the terrorist networks are losing some of their major supporters, although medical care in Israel is still available...

Courtesy of your every friendly muslim nation again. 

Is there a betting agency where we can place bets as to where the next cultural enrichment event will take place?