Exchanges of fire are continuing at a hotel in Burkina Faso's capital as special forces seek to break a deadly siege by suspected Islamist gunmen.

Some 30 hostages were freed overnight at
Ouagadougou's luxury Splendid Hotel but there
are fears that at least 20 people were killed.
Gunmen stormed the hotel and a nearby cafe
after setting off bombs.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has
said it carried out the attack in the West African
nation, monitors said.
French President Francois Hollande - whose
forces are part of the operation against the
militants - condemned the "odious and cowardly
attack".
Remi Dandjinou, the Burkinabe communications
minister, told the BBC there were between six
and seven gunmen and they had been staying at
the hotel.
He also said a member of the government,
Minister of Public Works Clement Sawadogo, was
among those freed at the hotel.
Thirty-three people were in hospital receiving
treatment, he added.
French special forces and Burkinabe troops have
been deployed at the hotel, which is used by UN
staff and Westerners.
Hospital chief Robert Sangare quoted survivors
as saying at least 20 people had died in the
initial attack, before the security forces began
their assault on the hotel.
Interior Minister Simon Compaore said 10 bodies
had been found on the terrace of the nearby
Cappuccino cafe.
The al-Murabitoun group, which reportedly
merged with AQIM recently, was involved in the
attack, monitors said.
Who are al-Murabitoun?
Witnesses said the gunmen had initially entered
the Cappuccino cafe. One employee at the cafe
told AFP news agency "several people" had been
killed there.
Eyewitnesses reported hearing exchanges of
gunfire between the men and security forces, as
well as sporadic gunfire from inside the hotel,
which is close to the country's international
airport.
Who is the group responsible?
The SITE monitoring group, which analyses
jihadist networks, reports that al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it was behind
the attack.
The monitoring group specifically stated that
those responsible were the al-Murabitoun group,
which is based in the Sahara desert in northern
Mali and contains fighters loyal to the veteran
Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
Last month, the group announced it had merged
with AQIM. Belmokhtar, a one-eyed commander
who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the
1980s, was once a member of AQIM but left
after a falling-out with its leadership.
Belmokhtar has been declared dead many times,
the latest by a US air strike on 14 June last year
in Libya - according to Libyan authorities - but
his death has not been formally confirmed.
AQIM and al-Murabitoun said they were behind
an attack on a hotel in Burkina Faso's neighbour
Mali in November, that left 20 people dead.
Burkina Faso had recently held its first
presidential election since a coup earlier last
year.
That coup toppled long-time leader Blaise
Compaore, who had governed for 27 years.
"We are still in a context of political fragility, so I
think the timing of this attack is meaningful,"
Cynthia Ohayon, an analyst with the International
Crisis Group, told the BBC from Ouagadougou.
"The country has long borders with Mali and
Niger, and we know there are armed groups
present on the border, so this was probably
something we had coming."