Mali says it arrested mastermind behind deadly hotel assault last Nov

Mali's intelligence service says it has arrested a Mauritanian man behind a deadly attack on a luxury hotel in the capital, Bamako, last November.

The General Directorate of State Security said in a statement late yesterday that the man, identified as Fawaz Ould Ahmeida, was a main planner of the Nov. 20 attack on the Radisson Blu hotel that left 20 dead.

It also linked him to an attack last month on the European Union military training mission's headquarters in Bamako. One assailant died in that incident.

The statement said Ould Ahmeida is a member of the Al-Mourabitoun group, which has also been implicated in the March 13 assault on a beach town in Ivory Coast.

It said he was plotting attacks on Western targets for this weekend.