Mali says note links al Qaeda splinter group to hotel siege

BAMAKO - Mali's chief prosecutor said on Saturday that it has evidence that jihadist group Al Mourabitoun, led by veteran leader veteran militant leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was behind a November attack on a luxury hotel that killed 20 people.
Boubacar Sidiki Samake said that a scrap of paper with an Arabic inscription was found on the bodies of the two men, later killed by Malian Special Forces. The note sought the release of two prisoners who are members of Al Mourabitoun held in neighboring Niger and Mauritania, he added.

"These factors lead us to think that effectively Al Mourabitoun was at the origin of this attack," Samake said on Malian state television late on Saturday.
Al Mourabitoun together with close ally Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) jointly claimed it as did Mali's Massina Liberation Front.

Sahara-based Al Mourabitoun is led by Algerian Islamist leader Belmokhtar with a long history of leading insurgencies across north Africa and the Sahara. Libya said last year that he was killed in a U.S. air strike, although fighters have repeatedly denied this.
French troops pushed them back into the desert in 2013 where they continue to pursue the militants. REUTERS