thank you so much, ayman mohyeldin. i was just handed a note from our folks who are at the white house that national security adviser susan rice has briefed the president on the unfolding situation in mali, and, of course, his national security team will continue to keep him apprised. mean time, in the netherlands, authorities are on heightened alert there, in rotterdam. police have detained three people near a parked car with belgian license plates. the police say the car gave officers reason to further investigate, although they're not saying exactly why this was treated as suspicious or saying anything about the identities of the three people. also this morning, french prosecutors say a third body has been recovered at the scene of the apartment where wednesday's raid happened. >>> and we are learning more about the suicide bomber who blew herself up in wednesday morning's raid. the first woman suicide bomber affiliated with isis, the first in europe. there are reports this morning that french prosecutors say they fo

let's put all of this into context of ayman mohyeldin. what can you tell me about islamic extremism in that part of africa and obviously, there's a lot of speculation at this hour about any possible connection between this attack and paris. >> reporter: yeah, chris. mali has been struggling for some time with a stubborn rebellion insurgency in the northern part of the country that dates back some years. to put it in context, it began roughly in 2012 when the civilian president of that country was overthrown by the military of mali. it was a coup that was carried out. shortly after that, a sudden explosion of several militant groups, islamic militant groups, some affiliated with al qaeda and other groups in the northern part of mali, managed to take control of that country and it led to an international condemnation, led by france, that followed that with international air strikes. now, france launched a military operation in early january 2013 and managed to drive out some of the rebels that were in control of the northern part of the ter

nbc's ayman mohyeldin has the very latest. he is standing by. irm these details, but it is possible at this point that some of the hostages or more of the hostages have been released or managed to escape. >> reporter: yeah, it seems to be a little bit of both, tamron, and we should start right now with the caveat that, you know, nbc has not independently verified this information, but a lot of credible information is coming out of mali right now. we want to start with the country's security minister who has been quoted as saying that there are no more hostages, an indication that perhaps this hostage situation has come to an end. another disturbing piece of information, though, that we are learning, the death toll initially reported at three now seems to be substantially higher, believed to be as high 1

i want to go straight to ayman mohyeldin with the latest on this attack. are security forces saying this is over, the gunmen are neutralized? >> reporter: yeah, all indications suggest that the operation now has come to an end and assessment is taking place of the situation inside that hotel. for the most part, the country's security minister has been quoted as saying there are no more hostages. that's perhaps the biggest indication that the security operation has come to an end. as you recall, this began in the early hours of the morning. various accounts of how many gunmen. that still has not yet emerged. i think we will learn about that more in the coming hours, at least in terms of the identity of who and how many people were involved. one of the biggest assessments taking place right now has to do with the number of casualties and fatalities. that number continues to rise. no official number has been given by the malian government. some accounts say as many as 27 people may have been killed throughout the course of the day. now, we have gotten confirm

nbc's ayman mohyeldin has the very latest. he is standing by. so, ayman, right now we're working to confirm these details, but it is possible at this point that some of the hostages or more of the hostages have been released or managed to escape. >> reporter: yeah, it seems to be a little bit of both, tamron, and we should start right now with the caveat that, you know, nbc has not independently verified this information, but a lot of credible information is coming out of mali right now. we want to start with the country's security minister who has been quoted as saying that there are no more hostages, an indication that perhaps this hostage situation has come to an end. another disturbing piece of information, though, that we are learning, the death toll initially reported at three now seems to be substantially higher, believed to be as high as 18 people. now, it's not yet clear whether that includes the hostage-takers or just the hostages. we do know that over the last couple hours, malian security forces backed by the united nations and backed

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ayman mohyeldin, thank you.want to bring in msnbc national security and military analyst, kevin baron, also executive editor of defense one. what do you make of that, the fresh news that ayman added about the fact that the cockpit voice recorder wasn't damaged and that they can extract information and raw data from it? >> that's a significant step that if it's true, because it can get to the heart of whether this was some sort of mechanical failure in the works in the air, i'm sure, or if it was just a sudden explosion as all signs seem to be pointing toward. i think more interesting to me is this russian development and announcement this morning, for days lots of intelligence sources back here on the u.s. side have been waiting to see would russia or egypt come forward with the same statements and precautions that the british already have and it seems that's finally happened. whether that's acceptance of a fact or just willingness of admission, it's just one more step away from accident and toward terrorism. >>

nbc's foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin joins us from cairo. thanks for joining me.n the great divide it seems between the british assessment of what's happened and the egyptians? >> reporter: well, the egyptian government is being very cautious in terms of describing what has happened. in fact, even within the egyptian government they have been very circumspect to say that it is terrorism. saying the evidence gathered so far is inconclusive to determine a specific cause. other ministers within the egyptian government have said blatantly this is not terrorism, there is mechanical. there has been some criticism toward the british government for suspending all flights in and out of sharm el sheikh heading towards london. from the egyptian perspective right now they are focusing their investigation on the flight data recorder which they've recovered, the cockpit voice recorder which is tweer severely damaged and analysis of the area around the crash. british intelligence seems to have other sources of intelligence. some suggest it may be intercepted intelligence between

nbc's ayman mohyeldin joins us now from cairo. the question to ayman, thank you for joining us. you're over there. the thought of, for years, i was growing up russia and cairo had close relations until saddam came along and broke those relations under nixon. so are the russians coming to do this war against isis? are they really going to do it? >> well, they're certainly dropping the bombs for it. but there's still a lot of questions as to how much russia is behind this to really fight terrorism or to try to prop up be shar al assad of syria. there's no doubt about it, that russia has been trying to warm up some of its relationships, those historic relationships that you talked about, chris, that in the past, it had with arab countries. it's lost a lot of those other the last couple of days, when america filled that void. there are some that are speculating that russia is trying to get a foothold back in the region. it's trying to exploit the weak relationship there. the takeover of power here, there has been an attempt by russia to try to start cozying up to the regime in cairo

joining me from cairo, egypt, foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin. the russians announced today they had had found it was some sort of explosive device that brought down the passenger plane. egyptian authorities still saying that's not the case. there seems to be dispute between the twoflations about what exactly happened. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, if you look at it over the course of the last several weeks, the egyptian government has been reluctant to buy into the theories from western governments that it was definitely a terrorist attack, especially in the growing evidence that has been presented by both u.s. and british intelligence that they detected some chatter among isis militants in the sinai peninsula before and after the attack celebrating it. today you had perhaps the closest thing to an actual forensic confirmation that this was a bomb. you had the head of russian intelligence saying that after they were able to analyze the soil sample and samples of the fuselage, they were able to determine that in fact, there was explosive residue in

ayman mohyeldin is live for us in cairo this evening. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, ereka. the news was probably not much of a surprise from western intelligence agencies and others. they've already, if you recall, have already come out with their conclusion, saying that it was more likely than not that the plane flying over the sinai peninsula was brought down as a result of a bomb. but russia's announcement, the head of its intelligence service, coming out and saying that it was an explosive device, based on testing of the sand in the fuselage itself, that led russian officials to believe that, in fact, it was a small amount of tnt, they believe that brought down the plane over the egyptian sinai peninsula. here in cairo, officials say they're going to take the russian conclusion into their own report, but they, so far, say they don't have any criminal evidence of any criminal activity, rather, to suggest it was a bomb that brought it down. you talked about the russian president, well, he vowed revenge. here's thwhat he had

nbc's ayman mohyeldin joins us live now from cairo. and ayman, those tourists are headed home from sharm el sheik, but they have to leave their luggage behind? are they able to take their carry-on luggage, though? >> reporter: yeah, one of the stepped-up security measures that has been put in place now for the thousands who are trying to return back to the united kingdom is that they will be allowed to take one piece of carry-on luggage, meaning most of their luggage they would normally check in will have to stay at the airport. it will have to be screened separately and then flown to the united kingdom at a separate, later time on a cargo plane once it goes through additional security. now, you can imagine that with thousands of stranded tourists, that is creating a bit of a logistical nightmare for egyptian officials here on the ground. they have already expressed some concern that they just don't have the capacity to take all of these additional thousands of pieces of luggage on a separate facility, to screen them and ultimately to s

quickly to cairo and ayman mohyeldin. this punctuates a point, safety throughout that region, specifically at egyptian airports where there's a long-held practice of paying to skirt security lines. imagine that sort of adds one more layer to this whole conversation. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. if this does in fact turn out to be a terrorist attack, this is certainly going to be a game changer. it will be a game changer on a few levels. certainly for the egyptian aviation industry, which is going to realize that it now has some serious vulnerabilities it has to address. more importantly for the egyptian government. no doubt the egyptian government has been dealing with a very stubborn militant insurgency in the sinai peninsula but it would also send a message from isis that it not only has the will to carry out these type of attacks on a large scale aviation capacity but it also has now the capability of penetrating some of egypt's most secured facilities where thousands if not hundreds of thousands of tourists are comi

msnbc's ayman mohyeldin is live in brussels. from there, he has been following this story throughout the day. what do we know additionally about this attack, and of course, ayman, who may be behind it? >> reporter: we're learning a little bit more about the identities of the victims. you now have confirmation that one american citizen was among those killed. a short while ago, a couple hours ago, to be precise, we got confirmation from officials here in belgium that a civil employee, a civil worker, if you will, of a regional parliament tier in belgium was also among those killed. he was also in mali for a training program to help train mali's parliament, and as a result of his trip there, he was at that hotel when the attack happened. it's giving you a sense of how diverse the victims were. we have now heard a claim of responsibility. important to emphasize, though, chris, as you know, that we cannot independently verify this claim of responsibility, but there is a claim of responsibility from one of the al qaeda affiliated grou

msnbc foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin is following the situation all day. what's the latest? >> reporter: well, the latest, kate, that we are getting is the closest thing to an official death toll from the united nations. and the number as of now stands at 21 people killed as a result of this hostage taking at this hotel. now, the united nations was hosting a conference on the grounds of that hotel when the operation began this morning. the hostage taking began followed by the operation i should clarify. it lasted for several hours. we know that members of the malian special forces and u.s. and french special forces were involved in that operation as they went floor to floor to try to clear out the building. we're also learning a little bit more about some of the fatalities. it happened to be that one of those that was killed in the attack was a civil government worker here from belgium. he had been in mali on a three-day training program to try and train malian parliamentarians and scheduled to come back to bah jum tomorrow morning and among those killed. in addition to the

let's bring in nbc news correspondent ayman mohyeldin who is live in brussels. what do we know now?e're starting to learn a little bit more details about this active shooter situation that has taken place in the malian capital. it's important to

let's go now toicairo, ayman mohyeldin is there. what's the latest?rmation you're saying about russia suspending all flights to cairo, to all of egypt, including cairo, which in itself would be a significant development. we know that some european carriers have already suspended flights to sharm el sheik, but russia is suspending flights to cairo international airport as well. that would certainly be a significant development. there are about 45,000 russians by some estimates that are currently vacationing in egypt and others that are here in town for business. this comes on the recommendation of the head of russia's internal security, who recommended that flights be suspended to sharm el sheik. what we do know right now is that the investigation continues into what caused that plane crash. as we've been reporting, egyptian officials continue to downplay any of the conclusions that have come out of western capitals, suggesting that it was a terrorist bomb. the egyptian minister of civil aviation says the evidence right now is not conclusive enough to

. >> keir simmons joins me from london and ayman mohyeldin in beirut. ayman, given the horrific bombings in beirut claimed by isis, and isis apparently taking down the airliner out of egypt, the russian airliner, how important is this if in fact they did get jihadi john? >> reporter: well, i think there's going to be a long-terminals along-term analysis. in the short term, this is a symbolic strike because this is an individual certainly known to the western world, he has become the face, if you will, or certainly the voice of isis given the fact he appeared with a mask in all the videos of those executions. he certainly was an individual who was used for propaganda purposes for isis in terms of recruiting in the western world so being able to take out somebody at that level who was the symbolic face and voice of the movement in terms of going after westerners and going after americans who had been captured by isis, it will have a tremendous value and certainly demoralizing effect to many of the propagandists and those who look inside isis to those weste

msnbc's ayman mohyeldin is in cairo for us this morning. what are you hearing today?ptian officials continue to be very critical of these media leaks. they're not coming out from egyptian members of this investigation and they're very blunt about criticizing those leak being the investigation. we heard from an investigator of the team on saturday and said that, yes, there were some confirmations that this was a mid-air explosion that brought down the plane. he said just the geographic dispersal of all of the plane suggests it was broken up in mid-air. he confirmed there was specifically a noise that was heard in the final second of the recording. that noise is now being sent to a lab for further analysis. and they are continuing the investigation on the scene of that plane crash. they're going to slowly start to transport some parts of the plane here to cairo for further forensic analysis and metal tests to try to determine if there's in he explosive residue on the plane. for now though the egyptian government is saying that all scenarios are on the table. we heard fr

. >> joining me now from beirut, my colleague, ayman mohyeldin.e consequences of president hollande calling the attacks an act of war and how that's being received in the middle east. >> reporter: well, there's definitely two components to this. certainly france being a member of nato and invoking its charter that it is being attacked and that this is an act of war could certainly galvanize other members of that alliance to carry out or to at least fulfill or participate in any military operations that france and other members of the nato alliance deem necessary to protect member states. we already know that some of those countries are involved in ongoing military operations, but the declaration that this was an act of war could certainly elevate the status of those military operations to possibly include ground operations much stronger than the current operations that we've seen which have mostly focused on aerial bombardment of isis targets. in terms of what it means for the region, well, we got a glimpse of that yesterday. the syrian president

nbc 4 correspondent ayman mohyeldin is live for us in beirut this morning. id it's a rare occurrence, that says a lot for a country that in the past has dealt with so much violence and has been in the past couple of years trying to kind of get out of that cycle of violence. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, by all indications, what is now happening inside syria's having a direct impact here in lebanon. now, there's no doubt on the battlefields of syria what we are seeing hezbollah, an organization that the united states considers as a terrorist organization, is providing military support and tactical advice backing the syrian regime, the government of president bashar al assad, as he -- groups such as isis and other rebel groups, trying to deflod dethrone him or knock him out of power. isis has been fighting against the syrian regime now for some time in addition to other groups, more moderate groups, as well as al qaeda-backed groups. and as a result of that, isis now is claiming responsibility for this attack yesterday by also bringing the fight against hezbollah

nbc's ayman mohyeldin has been covering that attack from brussels. he joins us now. what happened there? just give us the facts on what happened today in mali. >> reporter: yeah, we're still learning a little bit more about what happened in the early hours of the morning, chris, but what we do know is that a group of armed gunmen entered the hotel, launching grenades with armed weapons, and took the hotel hostage, according to the radisson hotel company. they took about 170 people hostage in the early hours of the morning. and as this day unfolded, we saw that malian security forces backed by a few u.s. special forces that were in the area at the time, by chance, just providing some support, as well as french special forces that arrived on the scene later, all of them entered the hotel throughout the course of the day and began to clear that hotel out floor by floor, room by room. by the end of the day, we got a clearer picture of exactly what happened. according to the united nations, at least 20 people were killed. that includes 19 hostages, 3 of the gunmen and 1 m

msnbc foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin is in beirut.t the situation there today, especially after isis sending this message to hezbollah with such a strong hold there in southern beirut. when it comes to hezbollah. >> reporter: yeah. well, there was an emergency meeting here in beirut, the lebanese capital, senior ranking political officials of the government were meeting to discuss the ongoing security situation. certainly the terrorist attack that happened yesterday is going to be a major cause of concern. this was one of the deadliest attacks in lebanon over the past several years, particularly since the civil war in syria began. the country continues to mourn what happened on thursday and investigators continue to go through to see exactly who was behind it. there were two individuals responsible for the first wave of attacks. a third individual believed to have killed himself or at least died before he was able to kill himself and detonate his third explosive. we missouknow that the forensic investigation continues. there is a clai

ayman mohyeldin in cairo. thank you so much.'s bring in kevin baron of defense one and msnbc national security analyst joining us now. kevin, nice the see you. >> you, too. >> we have seen these kind of attacks in iraq, afghanistan. but now in jordan. i can't recall that happening before. when's the significance? >> well, it's significant that it's in jordan and the facility. this is a premier training facility for special operations and the joint police units like we saw and talking about that was built in part by the u.s. army, that's funded by the u.s. government, that many four-star generals have blessed and gone to visit it and see it. and as was just said, supposed to be a gathering point for the elite security forces of countries around the region and afghanistan to come and train. so not just infiltrate, you know, the larger training program that is are happening in afghanistan at the height of that war or iraq but to get into jordan, to be a local, national -- that's definitely concerning. >> some have called him a disg

i want to turn to ayman mohyeldin in beirut. possible that this is a devastating blow to isis, but is it also possible this becomes a rallying cry to recruit even more militants? >> reporter: well, there's no doubt that isis in the past has used the death of its seniors to recruit. for many, it's a self-fulfilling wish, to die on the battlefield, to die as what they describe as martyrs. so for somebody who is as high profile, who was as visible, because he was somebody who came from the west, somebody who was featured prominently in a lot of isis propaganda video and somebody who was involved through those videos from recruiting westerners. it's going to feel that kind of recruitment even more. he's going to be celebrated among the followers and particularly, those isis recruiters who target the west. so as keir was saying, this is a very significant blow to the propaganda arm of isis, particularly that is going after westerners and folks in the u.s. and elsewhere. in terms of what it may do in terms of challenging or changing t

nbc's ayman mohyeldin has been covering that attack from brussels. he joins us now. what happened there? just give us the facts on what happened today in mali. >> reporter: yeah, we're still learning a little bit more about what happened in the early hours of the morning, chris, but what we do know is that a group of armed gunmen entered the hotel, launching grenades with armed weapons, and took the hotel hostage, according to the radisson hotel company. they took about 170 people hostage in the early hours of the morning. and as this day unfolded, we saw that malian security forces backed by a few u.s. special forces that were in the area at the time, by chance, just providing some support, as well as french special forces that arrived on the scene later, all of them entered the hotel throughout the course of the day and began to clear that hotel out floor by floor, room by room. by the end of the day, we got a clearer picture of exactly what happened. according to the united nations, at least 20 people were killed. that includes 19 hostages, 3 of the gunmen and 1 m

we want to go to ayman mohyeldin in beirut. remember, beirut was one of the first prongs of this round of violence from isis. while pete was speaking, ayman, we have learned french warplanes have been in the air again tonight your time, and beirut remains a big front in all of this. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. it's always hard to get information out of syria, particularly in a place like raqqa, the de facto capital. but we do know french air strikes have been continuing throughout the course of the day and into the evening. we have been able to see from some activists on the ground, syrian activists who in the past have been reliable and credible, that these air strikes have targeted a command and control center belonging to isis, a recruitment center as well as a training facility that they believe isis was using. they have also managed to say there have been no civilians killed as a result of the coalition air strikes that have taken place, predominantly in the eastern part of the city. they managed to get to some of the ar

let's go right to nbc's ayman mohyeldin in cairo. >> kate, this is a pretty significant development.ro telling us, despite initial assessments that the cockpit voice recorder was damaged and was going to have to be transported out of cairo for further analysis, that they were able to actually analyze it here locally in cairo. this is a pretty significant development. we know that previously they had the data flight recorder, all the information that was on the black box, but as we were saying, the cockpit voice recorder, there were some speculation that it was severely damaged. now we know from the civil aviation ministry, that it's working. they're going to be able to get information off of it. the civil aviation ministry was holding a press conference late this afternoon. but now word it might be postponed. so still lots of questions as to whether or not this downing of the plane was the result of a terrorist bomb. egyptian government officials here have been trying to down play that. they've been somewhat critical of western countries, including the u.s. and the united kingdom and

let's go right now to nbc news correspondent ayman mohyeldin live in brussels. he's, of course, been following the latest developments there very closely. but also the latest developments in mali. obviously, ayman, this has been a war-torn country for some time. a heavy french presence after you had the islamists take over the country in 2013. what can you tell us about the country and why we're seeing another massive terror operation there? >> it's important to emphasize we still don't know the ident y identity. a lot of turmoil over the past several years in 2012 when the military in that country carried out a coup against the president, and shortly after that, the country saw an immediate split. you had a group of rebels in the northern part of the country, some affiliated with al qaeda in the maghreb which is the al qaeda affiliate that operates mostly in the western part of africa. they began a rebellion and began to take over the northern part of the country. it was at the time a very disturbing scene to see mali split up that quickly, right after that mili