Death Toll Mounts In Mali Terrorist Attack

Death Toll Mounts In Mali Terrorist Attack

The death toll numbers are still coming in regarding Friday’s attack on a hotel in Mali by machine gun wielding terrorists and news says that one American is one of the fatalities.

So far the death count is 27 with scores of others wounded. Reports that the Jihadis also carried grenades and also killed a Belgian diplomat and at one point held 100 people hostage. Luckily 127 hostages did escape as the al-Qaeda affiliated group called Al-Mourabitoun claimed responsibility for the assault.

Like something out of a Hollywood movie, the Al-Mourabitoun group is a splinter group from al-Qaeda and is reportedly run by a one-eyed warlord named “The Marlboro Man”. His real name is reportedly Mokthar Belmokhtar.

This attack has cemented the concerns of law enforcement and government security as it comes less than a week after the massacres in Paris, France committed by ISIS. With French and international allies bombarding ISIS strongholds and supply lines, this attack in Mali shows to what lengths these terrorists will go to. In this case, officers were able to rescue the majority of people on site and do away with the terrorists who met their just due.

Things could have gone worse. With over 100 hostages at one time, the terrorists here could have equaled or surpassed the Paris massacres, but instead some hostages were released and others rescued.

Now officials around the world will have to gather the information from this assault to better combat these kinds of attacks and hopefully get a break in how to route these warlords and terrorist groups once and for all.

The terrorists are quickly cutting their own throats by attacking everyone and anything. To have all three super powers angry at you is not a good thing. The US, Russia, and China haven’t been this close as allies since WWII when they defeated both the Nazis and the Japanese Empire. Now with high tech weaponry and advanced surveillance technologies, it’s a sure bet that the three powers will use whatever they can to destroy the terrorists no matter where they embed themselves.
The al-Qaeda splinter group who claim responsibility in this Mali slaughter are just a sign that these terrorist groups keep breaking off of main groups and like crumbs, collect on the floors. It will be quite a task for law enforcement and government to list every terrorist group and splinter cell. As one terrorist leader argues with another, another group forms, like a disease and then spreads. Now with everyone and their brother pounding on the terrorists, a major break may occur and then it will be only a matter of time when the real problem is so limited that the world will not have to live in such terror.