( CNN ) A shooting at a bar popular with expatriates in Mali on Saturday killed five people , including French and Belgian citizens , authorities said . One French citizen , one Belgian and three Malians were killed in the attack in the capital of Bamako , said Gabriel Toure , director of a local hospital . An additional eight people were wounded , he said . Authorities called the shooting a `` criminal and terrorist act . '' `` Mali remains committed to seeking peace and will not be intimidated by those who have no other motives than to do away ( with ) the prospects of peace and harmony amongst the Malians , '' the government said in a statement . A North African jihadist group , al-Murabitun , claimed responsibility for the attack , according to Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar . The purported claim came in an audio message in which the group said it carried out the attack in retaliation for the killing of one of its leaders , Al Akhbar said . `` Al-Murabitun may be considered a regional competitor to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( AQIM ) , '' according to the Jamestown Foundation , a Washington-based research and analysis firm . The U.S. State Department said in January that al-Murabitun is a `` newly-formed '' militant group that has presence in northern Mali . French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the victim from his country was 31 years old . French President Francois Hollande released a statement condemning the attack . U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his condolences to the victims ' families in a news conference in Paris on Saturday . `` This is an act of cowardice , '' he said . `` But an act of opening fire in a restaurant filled with innocent civilians -- in the end , that only strengthens our resolve to fight terrorism in all of its forms , wherever it exists . '' The French Embassy in Bamako warned its citizens to be on alert if they go out in public . Though it 's unclear whether any rebel group is responsible for the attack , Malian forces have battled Islamist militants in the northern part of the nation for years . Fabius said the Malian government was interrogating some suspects . Mali plunged into chaos after soldiers staged a coup three years ago . As a result , Tuareg fighters capitalized on the power vacuum to launch an insurgency that ended with their takeover of the north . After the Tuareg fighters seized the region , a power struggle erupted with local Islamist radicals . The extremists toppled the tribe and seized control of a large piece of northern Mali , an area the size of France . Since then , the nation has battled various rebel factions , mostly in the northern region , with the help of French and African forces . CNN 's Brian Walker , Joshua Berlinger and Christabelle Fombu contributed to this report .
A jihadist group claims responsibility in an audio recording , news agency reports . - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) releases a video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley by its fighters.