Islamists claim attack at Mali hotel that killed at least 21

Heavily armed gunmen on Friday fired sporadically at guests at a hotel, hosting diplomats and others in Mali's capital, the maître d' revealed to CNN.

Not less than 21 people were reported killed in the attack in which an al Qaeda-affiliated group is taking partial responsibility.

"These people started shooting. They were shooting at everybody without asking a single question. They were shooting at anything that moved," Tamba Couye said of the attack at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako.

One man did yell "Allahu akbar," said Couye, who was working in the restaurant where breakfast was underway. The attackers sounded like they were from northern Mali, he told "Erin Burnett OutFront."

Couye said an attacker chased him from the hotel but he came back later to help because his instincts told him he needed to do so to save lives.

Dozens of people were trapped in the building for hours, officials in the West African nation said, before Malian and U.N. security forces launched a counterattack and rushed guests away.

Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, put the death toll at 21.

Al Mourabitoun, an Islamist militant group, claimed it was jointly responsible for the attack, according to Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar. The group announced it carried out the attack with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the news agency reported.

Al Mourabitoun said the attack was carried out in retaliation for government aggression in northern Mali, Al Akhbar reported. The group also demanded the release of prisoners in France.

Algerian jihadist and the leader of the group, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is "probably" behind the attack, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview on France's TF1, but the French are not "entirely sure."

Belmokhtar was the target of a June U.S. airstrike in Libya. Libyan officials said he had been killed but U.S. officials never confirmed his death publicly.

The assault began about 7 a.m., when two or three attackers with AK-47 rifles exited at least one vehicle with diplomatic plates and entered the hotel with guns firing, Salgado said.

The attack, Salgado said, came as the hotel hosted diplomatic delegations working on a peace process in the landlocked country, a former French colony that has been battling Islamist extremists with the help of U.N. and French forces.

The Radisson chain said that as many as 170 people -- 140 guests and 30 employees -- had been there as the attack began.

The Radisson Blu Hotel is in an upscale neighborhood outside the center of Bamako, rising high above the dusty streets and surrounding houses. With 190 rooms and suites, it is known as a hub for international guests such as diplomats and businesspeople, and it is a 15-minute drive from Bamako-Senou International Airport.

France said it dispatched to Mali an elite paramilitary group trained in hostage rescue and counterterrorism operations. President Francois Hollande, speaking to reporters in Paris, pledged to provide "necessary support" to help Mali resolve the situation.

U.S. special operations forces were helping "move civilians to secured locations as Malian forces clear the hotel of hostile gunmen," said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command.

The attack comes just a day after Hollande praised his troops for successfully fighting Islamists in the former French colony. It also comes a week after France suffered its own high-profile terror attack.