An al-Qaeda linked group says it carried out a significant assault on the Malian city of Boulikessi and the seizure of a military base there.
Greater than 30 troopers had been killed in Sunday’s assault, in accordance with sources quoted by the information company Reuters, nonetheless that determine has not been confirmed by the authorities.
On Monday the identical group, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), mentioned it focused the navy within the historic metropolis of Timbuktu, with residents reporting listening to gunfire and explosions.
Mali’s military mentioned in a press release late on Monday that it had repelled an “infiltration try by terrorist fighters” in Timbuktu, “neutralising” 14 militants and arresting 31 suspects.
It added that weapons, automobiles and different gadgets had been seized, however didn’t identify the group answerable for the assault. The military mentioned search operations throughout Timbuktu had been ongoing.
In an earlier assertion, the military mentioned it “reacted vigorously” to Sunday’s assault, earlier than “withdrawing” – suggesting a tactical retreat.
“Many males fought, some till their final breath, to defend the Malian nation,” the assertion added.
An unnamed native supply informed Reuters that JNIM had left many casualties and “cleared the camp”.
Unverified video footage confirmed dozens of militants storming the bottom, together with one which captured them stepping on our bodies, in accordance with Reuters.
In Monday’s assault, JNIM mentioned its fighters had attacked a navy airport and Russian mercenaries.
Army and safety sources informed the AFP information company they had been “preventing again”, however that the militants had been “all over the place within the metropolis”.
An area official mentioned the attackers had arrived “with a automobile full of explosives” that detonated near the military camp.
Timbuktu, a UN World Heritage Website, was captured by Islamist militants in 2012 earlier than they had been pushed out, however has as soon as extra been underneath siege lately.
The assaults, the most recent signal of collapsing safety in Mali and the broader Sahel area, got here after the USA Africa Command warned about rising efforts by varied completely different Islamist militant teams which function within the Sahel to realize entry to West Africa’s shoreline.
Throughout a press convention on Friday, the commander of United States Africa Command (Africom), Gen Michael Langley, described current assaults in Nigeria, the broader Sahel, and the Lake Chad Basin as deeply troubling, warning that the teams’ entry to the coast would considerably enhance their capability for smuggling and arms trafficking.
It’s thought that greater than 400 troopers have been killed by militants because the starting of final month in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Reuters studies.
Further reporting by Simon Ponsford
