How should security forces respond to mass-hostage situations?

One thing to notice about the terrorist incident in Bamako on Friday was the speed with which Malian security forces responded. As soon as word got out that active shooters were in the upscale Radisson Blu hotel, security forces got moving.

Very quickly, they went on the attack, clearing the hotel floor by floor. There were casualties, but dozens of hostages were freed. French and US special forces, on training missions in Mali, were able to assist.

There was a similar rapid response at the Bataclan theater in Paris last week. Security forces stormed in just two hours and 40 minutes after the first shots were fired.

"That's exactly what you want to do in this kind of situation,” says Scott Stewart — a former special agent with the State Department, who has worked on hundreds of terrorism cases. Stewart is now a security expert with the strategic intelligence company, Stratfor.

"It's not a traditional a traditional hostage-taking, for ransom or exchange. They’re in there for carnage,” says Stewart. “It’s really the lesson we learned here domestically in the US, after Columbine. Up to that point, the procedure had been to surround it and wait for SWAT to come in. Now with active shooter protocols, the idea is to go in as quickly as you can. And that’s what you starting to see in these cases overseas as well.”

There’s no room for negotiation, Stewart says. “When it’s all about making corpses as quickly as you can, you just need to interrupt that cycle. You can’t give them a free hand to operate.”

A prolonged stand-off can lead to a higher body-count, suggests Stewart. It allows the attackers time to hunt down people who may be hiding, and also to fortify their positions and possibly setup booby-traps and improvised explosive devices. It also gives the terrorists the media attention they crave.

He says it’s not difficult to tell whether it’s a mass-killing event, or a more traditional hostage-taking situation. “If they come in with guns blazing and just start shooting people, it’s a pretty good indication that it’s not about holding hostages and negotiating.”

“Obviously one of the greatest concerns for the responding forces is collateral damage,” adds Stewart. Hostages can get shot by mistake, or killed in crossfire. “But if you’re in a scenario where the bad guys are shooting people anyways, the victims have a better chance if the security forces do come in.”