Three armed assailants attacked the Étoile du Sud hotel which, according to
Agence France-Presse, was occupied by numerous
expatriates at the time. According to officials, 15 civilians and three special forces soldiers were killed. The attackers were described as African, armed with
Kalashnikov rifles and
grenade belts and dressed in casual clothes and
balaclavas. The
Associated Press quoted
Government officials as saying that security forces had killed six armed men. The
terrorists allegedly shouted "
Allahu Akbar". An
American embassy delegation was at Grand-Bassam on the date of the attack, but the US Embassy in
Abidjan said on
Twitter that there is "no evidence that U.S. citizens were targeted nor confirmed reports of any citizens as harmed." French authorities had warned both Ivory Coast and Senegal weeks earlier of the danger of a terrorist attack.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and
al-Mourabitoun claimed responsibility for the attack. On 17 March, AQIM released the names of the attackers: Hamza al-Fulani and Abu Adam al-Ansari from al-Mourabitoun and Abderrahmane al-Fulani from the "Emirate of the Desert". It had been the third bloody attack on a tourism resort in West Africa for four months. In all, dozens of people fell victim to the assassinations and more were injured. ==Casualties==