At least 18 people were killed and many others wounded after gunmen attacked a Turkish restaurant in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on Sunday night, Al-Jazeera reported.
Security forces killed the assailants and freed those trapped inside the building, Reuters reported. Burkina Faso’s Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou confirmed that it was a terrorist attack. Dandjinou said the operation has ended, but searches are still on around the restaurant, so the toll may increase.
Earlier reports said there were three gunmen, but Dandjinou later revised it to two assailants. Witnesses said the gunmen opened fire on customers seated outside the restaurant around 9.30 pm. Security forces reached the spot after receiving reports of shots being fired near the upscale Turkish restaurant Aziz Istanbul in Ouagadougou.
“We evacuated 11 people but one of them, a Turk, died on arriving at the hospital,” a paramedic told AFP. The others hospitalised were reported to be in a critical condition.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. However, it is suspected that the attack could be the work of one of the affiliates of the al-Qaeda, reported BBC.
In January 2016, a similar attack at a nearby cafe had left 30 people dead.
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