Gunmen target EU headquarters in Mali

Gunmen on Monday evening attacked the European Union military training headquarters in Mali’s capital, Bamako, in the latest attack on Western presence in the region.

The EU training mission released a statement saying its headquarters, housed in the Hotel Nord-Sud, was attacked by small arms fire, but no personnel had been wounded.

Armed forces killed at least one of the attackers and continued the search for three others, according to Malian special-forces spokesman Cmdr. Modibo Naman Traore.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but extremist groups have mounted similar attacks on foreigners and peacekeepers in recent months. A number of jihadi organizations, many of them linked to al-Qaeda, call Mali home. So far, Islamic State (ISIS), which took responsibility for today’s terror attack in Belgium, has not claimed to be behind any attacks in Mali.

The EU mission was first deployed to Mali in an effort to stabilize the country after a military coup in 2012. The United Nations also set up a peacekeeping mission. France led an intervention a year later that successfully pushed back extremists in northern Mali, but they continue to regroup.

“As long as the EU and UN and foreign embassies are hypersensitive about security, it makes it harder for them to go out and carry out their mission,” said Bruce Whitehouse, associate professor of anthropology at Lehigh University. “Their mission is really to win the hearts and minds of the people.”

In November, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and al-Mourabiton claimed responsibility for the Radisson Blu hotel attack in Bamako that left 20 people dead. In January, the same groups struck a café near a hotel, killing at least 30. Last week, AQIM led the assault on the Ivory Coast beach that left at least 19 dead.

“It could be the same strategy of trying to perish the economy by keeping foreigners away,” said Chris Chivvis, associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at Rand Corporation. “Another possibility is simply that they believe foreigners are, for some reason, more accessible targets than the local population.”

As international efforts to curtail terror groups in the region continue, more attacks on foreigners are likely, Chivvis said.

“We can expect to see foreigner attacks within the region itself carried out by these groups in particular against those countries that are contributing forces to the UN operation in Mali,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.