Mali's Colonel Lamana Ould Bou Assasinated by AQIM

Suspected al-Qaeda members have killed a senior Malian military officer at his home in Timbuktu, members of his family and security officials said yesterday.

• At least one suspect was arrested yesterday in connection with the killing of Lieutenant-Colonel Lamana Ould Bou, a security source told AFP.

"We just arrested one, if not more, of the suspects in the killing of Lieutenant-Colonel Lamana Ould Bou," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It was indeed al-Qaeda that did the job."

• Ould Bou was an intelligence officer who had played a key part in the arrest of several members of al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) when they crossed Mali's territory, according to family and security sources.
• Another security source said that the lieutenant-colonel had been wanted by the Islamic extremists for his role in the arrests.
• A family member said four men parked their car in front of Ould Bou's home Wednesday night and two of them entered his home.
• "The lieutenant-colonel was sitting in the living room and one of the armed men told the other, 'It's him, it's him,' and pointed. That's how they shot the lieutenant-colonel with three bullets," the family member said.

If it is confirmed that the attack was carried out by al-Qaeda it would be the first time that the network's north African branch killed a high-ranking Malian officer.

"That's symbolic. The Islamists have understood that Mali is firmly committed to the struggle against al-Qaeda. They killed an important figure who knew them well and whom they knew well," said a foreign diplomat in Bamako.

• The government recently announced a "pitiless struggle" against AQIM after it executed British hostage Edwin Dyer on May 31.
• Dyer was among a group of four tourists who were kidnapped in January by AQIM, which also seized two Canadian diplomats. Four of the six were freed in April, but Swiss tourist Werner Greiner is still in captivity

The Rest @ Jamaica News Via AFP

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Al-Qaida Suspected in Death of Senior Malian Army Officer
Nana Adu Ampofo
A senior Malian intelligence officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Lamana Ould Bou, was killed at his home yesterday (11 June) in Timbuktu (northern Mali), less than two weeks after the execution of British tourist Edwin Dyer by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Ould Bou is said to have played a prominent role in the arrest of several AQIM members earlier this week and his assassination would be the first such action by AQIM in Mali. According to an Agence France-Presse report, Malian security forces have arrested a suspect in connection with the death (seeMali: 3 June 2009:).

Significance:

• Assuming AQIM's involvement is confirmed, Ould Bou's death represents a notable expansion in AQIM operations in Mali.
• Although AQIM (formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) has been active in the country intermittently since 2004, it has typically limited itself to kidnappings wherein hostages have been released in return for ransom payments.
• Now that Tuareg insurgent Ibrahim Ag Bahanga has fled the country and his forces have been neutralised, AQIM represents the major terrorist threat to the Malian government.
• Increasingly, Mali's large, ungoverned spaces in the Kidal region and above Timbuktu appear to be exploited by AQIM as a base for operations in the Sahel, particularly Algeria and along the Niger-Mali border.

President Amadou Toumani Toure has pledged to fight AQIM "without mercy", but is hamstrung by capacity constraints. The Malian and Algerian governments have committed to greater co-operation on counterterrorism and in mid-May the Malian authorities received an Algerian military aid consignment.

Mali also leans on the U.S. Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative, which supports training, logistics and co-ordination across the sub-region.

Source Lexis Nexis

Ibrahima Bahanga, Hassan Fagaga, Iyad A Ghali, Mali, The 'Alliance Démocratique du 23 mai pour le Changement'( ADC )

The 'Alliance Démocratique du 23 mai pour le Changement' is a Tuareg rebel group created the 23rd May 2006, from the Tuareg Movement located in the region of Adrar des Ifoghas in Mali. Their stated mission is to defend the interest of the Turaeg of the North of Mali.

Leader
Ibrahim Ag Bahanga
2006

Military Commander
Hassan Ag Fagaga
2007

Secretary-General
Iyad Ag Ghali
2006

Mali Government Claims Tuareg Rebellion is Finished

Mali's Defense ministry announced that after completing an offensive underway for weeks, the army now controls “all bases” of the rebels active in the north of the country. In a statement released today, the ministry specified that

“the army has routed Tuareg rebels of the Democratic Alliance for Change (ATNM)” led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, the last armed group active in the nation that refuses to take part in the Algiers peace process.

All the operational and logistical bases of the movement in Tin Assalek, Abeibara, Boureissa, Inerdjane and east of Touksimène have been taken and are under the control of our army and security forces”, added the ministry, referring that 22 rebels had been taken prisoner in the operation and large amounts of weapons, munitions and vehicles seized.

The wanted rebel leader Ag Bahanga is still at large.

A ceremony is due to be held on Sunday in Kidal, in the north, for the peaceful return of more than 500 former Tuareg rebels to the town of Kidal, a step outlined in the July 2006 Algiers peace agreement, committing the rebels to drop demands for the autonomy of northern Mali in exchange for a more rapid development of the three northern regions of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu.

The ATNM in fact demanded a reduction in the military presence in the Tinzaouatène zone, on the border with Algeria, but the government refused claiming it was an international drug transit area.

The Rest @ African News Analysis

Niger and Mali Rebels Coordinate Attacks

More evidence that al Aqeda is involved.

-Shimron


BAMAKO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Suspected Tuareg gunmen seized a military supply convoy in northern Mali taking 23 soldiers hostage, the latest sign of a concerted campaign with Tuareg rebels in neighbouring Niger, military sources said on Tuesday.

In the second attack in two days, a group of heavily armed men in Toyota pick-ups ambushed the convoy on Monday some 50 km (31 miles) from the town of Tinsawatene in Mali's desolate northern reaches near the border with Algeria.

After a gunbattle lasting several hours, the attackers captured a Toyota pick up, a lorry containing supplies, and large quantities of munitions. Six soldiers were able to escape.
"We're in shock. It was a heavy toll," said a senior Defence Ministry source. "Now it's a man hunt. We will spare no effort to find these men."

Military sources said several attackers were killed in the gunfight. It came a day after suspected Tuareg rebels captured 15 Malian soldiers in a remote Saharan town and carried them off toward Niger, where nomadic tribesmen are waging a seven-month old uprising.

The mountainous area where Sunday's abductions took place is regarded as a stronghold of Tuareg leader Ibrahima Bahanga, whom Malian authorities accuse of killing a gendarme in an attack in May backed by rebels from the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ).

"We are obliged to work closely with Niger because we believe there are links between the two groups," said the senior defence source.

"When they launch attacks in Niger they seek refuge in Mali, and when they attack in Mali they hide in Niger."

"There are contacts under way between military authorities in Mali and Niger to secure the area," the source added.

REGIONAL EFFORTS

Last week, Mali and Niger's security ministers met in the eastern Malian town of Gao and signed a deal allowing each others' security forces to pursue suspected bandits across their common border.

Bahanga, one of the leaders of a Tuareg revolt in the 1990s which won greater autonomy for the light-skinned tribesmen in Mali and Niger, has been disowned by a broader Malian rebel alliance, which signed a deal with President Amadou Toumani Toure in July 2006.

Toure, during a weekend visit to Tripoli, said he had agreed with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to hold a regional summit on security in the Sahel.

Niger President Mamadou Tandja has also appealed for regional support in quelling the uprising, which his government has accused French nuclear power company Areva and "rich foreign powers" of supporting.

The company has strongly denied this.

Niger's government said on Tuesday it had demined and reopened the road between the northern uranium mining hub of Arlit and the oasis town of Iferouane, which lies more than 1,000 km (600 miles) from the capital Niamey and has been isolated for more than two months.

A military convoy was able to deliver 60 tonnes of emergency food aid to the settlement, which lies in the heart of the rebel zone and was the scene of its first attack in February.

(Additional reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey)

The Rest @ Reuters

Mali Army Officers (Tuaregs) are Executed When Eent to Negotiate Austrians' Release

This article appeared April 22, 2008, and I did not catch it until now.
However, therre are some Key names,dates, and events in the Mali Tuareg rebellion.

-Shimron

BRIEFSMYSTERIOUS MURDERS OF TUAREGS NEGOTIATING WITH AL-QAEDA KIDNAPPERS IN MALIThe bodies of three brutally executed men were found in the desert region of Kidal in northern Mali last week.

The victims turned out to be two Tuareg negotiators and a driver, assigned to mediate the release of two Austrian tourists, Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber, who were kidnapped in February by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) while on an “adventure holiday” in Tunisia. The kidnappers are believed to be under the command of AQIM leader Abdel Hamid Abu Zayd, thought to be the Saharan amir of AQIM, Yahia Abu Amar, selected the mediators and made arrangements for the meeting.

• In exchange for the Austrians, AQIM is demanding a ransom and the release of an Islamist and his wife that the group claims are being held and tortured in “the Austrian Guantanamo” (AFP, April 7).
• The murders of two of the six mediators appointed to negotiate the release of the two Austrians came only several days after negotiation efforts began (Al-Jazeera, April 16).
• The mediators were former rebel Tuareg commanders who were recently integrated into the Malian army as part of a peace deal struck last year.
• A student who was acting as a driver for mediator Baraka Cheikh was also killed after apparently being mistaken for Colonel Muhammad Ould Midou, another Tuareg officer (El Khabar [Algiers], April 20).
• On arrival at a tent sent up for the purpose of negotiations, the men were tied up and repeatedly shot in the head. The military commander of the Malian Tuareg rebels is Lt. Col. Hassan Fagaga, who has twice been integrated into the Malian army but has returned to the desert rebellion both times. Fagaga is now reported to be in league with rebel leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, who held out from last year’s accord with the government (Reuters, April 8).
• In March Fagaga threatened to “eliminate” any al-Qaeda operatives who ventured into the area controlled by the Tuareg rebels, though he acknowledged that some AQIM members had infiltrated the area around Kidal, close to the Algerian border and the scene of heavy fighting between the rebels and the Malian army last month (El Khabar, March 5).

Though there is little evidence so far as to who is responsible for this crime, some Tuareg suspect intelligence agents connected to the Malian Army of carrying out the murders. Referring to continuing ethnic tensions within Mali, Hassan Fagaga claims: “There is a plan to execute the commanders in the Malian army of Tuareg origin in the north…” (El Khabar, April 17). After the announcement of an unofficial truce earlier this month between Tuareg rebels and the Malian army, the heavy fighting seen in March has slackened off, though both sides remain on a war footing. The Tuareg rebels have their own hostages: 33 Malian soldiers who were captured last month but not released as they were supposed to be under the terms of the latest ceasefire.

• Negotiations for the release of the Austrians appear to have been suspended, though the Austrian Foreign Ministry asserts that efforts are continuing to obtain the release of the pair.
• Libya has also become involved in the negotiations at the highest levels, but three deadlines set by AQIM have already expired.
• Austria has denied sending its “Cobra” Special Forces team (Einsatzkommando Cobra, or EKO) to Mali to retrieve the hostages (El Khabar, March 26).

Full Article from Jamestown

Government Forces Close in on Tuareg Rebels, MNJ

BAMAKO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have agreed to free military hostages as government forces encircle their positions in a remote desert garrison town, a government source said on Wednesday.

Fighters loyal to insurgent chief Ibrahima Bahanga have besieged Tin-Zaouatene since last Friday following a flurry of raids against military targets in what appears to be a limited revival of the region's 1990s Tuareg rebellion.

The army had set up a cordon around Bahanga's positions, a military source said, while local officials and mediators from neighbouring Algeria extracted guarantees including the release of government soldiers and access for a demining team.

"There's nothing official but, from what has leaked out, the mediators have obtained from
Bahanga the liberation of the hostages, access for a team to demine the zone and a (temporary) cessation of hostilities," the government source said.
It was not immediately possible to contact the insurgents.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa

The Sahel - Tuareg - Mail Battle ends with 12 Dead

BAMAKO, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Mali's army said on Sunday it had killed at least 12 Tuareg rebels in three days of clashes around a northern garrison besieged by the desert insurgents near the border with Algeria.

One government soldier was killed on Sunday when a column of army reinforcements heading for the garrison at Tin-Zaouatene in the remote northeast was ambushed by rebel fighters led by insurgent chief Ibrahima Bahanga, a senior officer said.

"The reinforcement mission which had left Kidal fell into an ambush this morning between Abebara and Tin-Zaouatene. There are five dead, one on our side and four on Bahanga's side," said the officer, who asked not to be named.

Since Friday, Bahanga's fighters have been besieging the garrison town of Tin-Zaouatene after a flurry of raids against military targets in recent weeks in what seems to be a limited revival of an earlier rebellion by the northern Tuaregs in the 1990s, both in Mali and neighbouring Niger.
The Malian officer said army mortar fire killed eight of Bahanga's fighters on Friday when Tin-Zaouatene's defenders fought off an attack. There were two further rebel assaults on Saturday, he added.

No independent confirmation of the casualties was immediately available.

The Sahel - Tuareg - Mail Battle ends with 12 Dead

BAMAKO, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Mali's army said on Sunday it had killed at least 12 Tuareg rebels in three days of clashes around a northern garrison besieged by the desert insurgents near the border with Algeria.

One government soldier was killed on Sunday when a column of army reinforcements heading for the garrison at Tin-Zaouatene in the remote northeast was ambushed by rebel fighters led by insurgent chief Ibrahima Bahanga, a senior officer said.

"The reinforcement mission which had left Kidal fell into an ambush this morning between Abebara and Tin-Zaouatene. There are five dead, one on our side and four on Bahanga's side," said the officer, who asked not to be named.

Since Friday, Bahanga's fighters have been besieging the garrison town of Tin-Zaouatene after a flurry of raids against military targets in recent weeks in what seems to be a limited revival of an earlier rebellion by the northern Tuaregs in the 1990s, both in Mali and neighbouring Niger.
The Malian officer said army mortar fire killed eight of Bahanga's fighters on Friday when Tin-Zaouatene's defenders fought off an attack. There were two further rebel assaults on Saturday, he added.

No independent confirmation of the casualties was immediately available.

Tuareg Rebels Fire at US C130 Resupply plane, attack Tin-Zaouatene

BAMAKO, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Tuareg rebels, who hit a U.S. military plane with small arms fire this week, attacked a remote Mali army garrison on Friday, a Defence Ministry official said.

• The rebels opened fire with automatic weapons around dawn at the northern garrison at Tin-Zaouatene, close to the border with Algeria, the official, who asked not to be named, said.
• Malian troops fired back. The fighting halted later and there was no immediate report of casualties.
• "Their objective is clear, to take 'Tin-Za'," the official said, adding the army was reinforcing positions at Tin-Zaouatene and elsewhere in the region.
• In recent weeks, the rebels led by insurgent leader Ibrahima Bahanga, have carried out raids and ambushes in the north.
• Malian official said the rebels had blocked access roads to the garrison town by laying mines as part of their efforts to prevent supplies getting through.
• A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules was hit on Wednesday while dropping food supplies to the Tin-Zaouatene garrison, but it returned safely to Bamako and none of its crew were hurt, U.S. officials said.
• Washington views Mali as an ally in its war on terrorism and its forces regularly train Malian troops. U.S. military officials said the resupply flight to Tin-Zaouatene was not a regular occurrence, but they did not rule out others.

The Rest @ Retuers Africa

Niger Rebels attack Military in Mali

By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Suspected Tuareg gunmen seized a military supply convoy in northern Mali, their second attack in two days and the latest sign of a concerted campaign with Tuareg rebels in neighbouring Niger, military sources said on Tuesday.
The ambush by a group of armed men crossing the desert in Toyota pick-ups took place on Monday some 50 km (31 miles) from the town of Tinsawatene, in Mali's desolate northern reaches, the sources said.

Some soldiers were injured and several attackers killed during hours of fighting before the rebels escaped with a supply truck, two Toyota vehicles and some prisoners.
"We do not know the death toll yet but many Toyotas were burned and many of the attackers were killed," said a senior Defence Ministry source.

On Sunday, suspected Tuareg gunmen abducted about 25 Malian soldiers in a remote Saharan town and took them off toward Niger, where the nomadic tribesmen have been waging a campaign for seven months, which has killed more than 45 soldiers.

The mountainous area where Sunday's abduction took place is regarded as a stronghold of Tuareg leader Ibrahima Bahanga, whom Malian authorities accuse of killing a gendarme in an attack in May backed by rebels from the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ).

"We are obliged to work closely with Niger because we believe there are links between the two groups," said the senior defence source.

"When they launch attacks in Niger they seek refuge in Mali, and when they attack in Mali they hide in Niger."

"There are contacts under way between military authorities in Mali and Niger to secure the area," the source added.

Last week, Mali and Niger's security ministers met in the eastern Malian town of Gao and signed a deal allowing each others' security forces to pursue suspected bandits across their common border.

Bahanga, one of the leaders of a Tuareg revolt in the 1990s which won greater autonomy for the light-skinned tribesmen in Mali and Niger, has been disowned by a broader Malian rebel alliance, which signed a deal with President Amadou Toumani Toure in July 2006.

Toure, during a weekend visit to Tripoli, said he had agreed with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to hold a regional summit on security in the Sahel.

Niger President Mamadou Tandja has also appealed for regional support in quelling the uprising, which his government has accused French nuclear power company Areva "rich foreign powers" of supporting.

The company has strongly denied this.

Niger's government said on Tuesday it had demined and reopened the road between the northern uranium mining hub of Arlit and the oasis town of Iferouane, which lies more than 1,000 km (600 miles) from the capital Niamey and has been isolated for more than two months.
A military convoy was able to deliver 60 tonnes of emergency food aid to the settlement, which lies in the heart of the rebel zone and was the scene of its first attack in February. (Additional reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey)

The Rest @ Rueters Africa