Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday mourned the lone identified American Mali terrorist attack victim, whom she knew from her Senate days.
Anita Datar, 41, perished in the Mali hotel siege on Friday. She’s the only American known to have died in the attack. A former Peace Corp worker in Senegal, Datar was in Mali on an international development project. The casualty hit home for Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner and senator from New York for eight years.
“I knew Anita as the loving mother of a wonderful seven-year old boy and the former partner of David Garten, one of my senior policy advisors in the Senate,” Clinton said in a statement. “My prayers are with the Datar and Garten families, especially Anita and David’s son. My heart breaks thinking of the burden he will now bear on his small shoulders and the courage he will have to show in the days ahead.”
“As I said this week, America must wage and win an immediate battle against ISIS, al Qaeda, and other terrorist networks, as well as a generational struggle against radical jihadism,” Clinton added. “We face a choice between fear and resolve. Anita’s murder should deepen our resolve. American must lead the world to meet this threat.”
Datar is among the at least 19 victims of terrorist attackers at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali. More than 100 people were taken hostage. The rampage came a week after at least 130 people were killed in Paris by Islamic terrorists. Two of the attackers in Mali died, though it’s unclear whether security forces killed them or they blew themselves up, CNN reported.
Friday night, President Barack Obama said the U.S. was still accounting for Americans who may have been inside the hotel.