OUAGADOUGOU: Security operations to drive al Qaeda fighters from a hotel they seized in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou late on Friday have ended with 126 hostages freed, the West African nation's security minister said on Saturday.

"Three jihadists were killed. They were an Arab and two black Africans," Simon Compaore told Reuters, adding that operations were continuing at the nearby Yibi Hotel.