16 people killed in Ivory Coast hotel shooting

In the west African country of Ivory Coast, 16 civilians and two soldiers were killed in deadly shootings on three hotels in the beach resort of Grand-Bassam. Country's interior minister said, the hotels were attacked by armed men in the former colonial capital which is popular with Ivorians and Westerners. He said, the six gunmen who carrying out the attack have been



neutralised. 

According to BBC, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the attack. Ivory Coast was seen as a model of stability in West Africa until a civil war erupted in 2002. The conflict pitted the mainly Muslim north against the largely Christian south. Since then, peace deals have alternated with renewed violence.