A number of dozen jihadists, adding commander, killed in Mali: UN
Bamako, Mali , April 6 – Greater than 40 jihadists, adding a senior commander, have been killed closing week once they attacked United Countries peacekeepers in northern Mali, the UN pressure MINUSMA stated on Monday.
A UN supply up to now stated about 20 of round 100 assailants have been killed in a three-hour counter-attack once they raided a camp of Chadian peacekeepers, leaving 4 troops lifeless.
However on Monday, MINUSMA leader Mahamat Saleh Annadif stated a seek of the battlefield on Sunday and Monday confirmed that the demise toll a few of the attackers was once kind of two times this quantity.
“As of these days, we have now counted greater than 40 lifeless terrorists, adding a right-hand guy to Iyad Ag Ghaly, through the identify of Abdallaye Ag Albaka,” Annadif informed AFP.
Ag Ghaly, a veteran jihadist, is chief of the shadowy Crew to Beef up Islam and Muslims (GSIM) within the Sahel, affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Ag Albaka, a former mayor of the city of Tessalit, has lengthy had a name for being considered one of Ag Ghaly’s lieutenants, entrusted with a senior army position in northern Mali, the cradle of an insurgency in 2012 that has since unfold to Niger and Burkina Faso.
A UN safety supply, talking on situation of anonymity, stated Ag Albaka was once No. 3 within the GSIM organisation.
The assault centered a Chadian contingent of MINUSMA at Aguelhok in northern Mali, round 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the border with Algeria.
The crack of dawn raid was once performed through a cell pressure on motorbikes and in automobiles.
“The peacekeepers have inflicted a major setback at the terrorists, that’s evidently, although we’re mourning the demise of 4” peacekeepers, stated Annadif, who could also be the secretary common’s particular consultant for Mali.
4 jihadists have been captured on Friday and passed over to Malian forces, the safety supply stated.
The UN additionally stated 34 of its troops were injured. The collection of wounded was once up to now put at 19.
MINUSMA, whose deployment to Mali started in 2013, is a fifteen,000-person project, of which 12,000 are troops.
It has misplaced greater than 140 individuals to antagonistic acts, the very best demise toll of any UN peacekeeping project. Ten fatalities have befell this 12 months on my own.
The pressure has been criticised in some quarters for failing to reply aggressively to the insurgency.
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