Al-Qaeda department claims killings of French troopers in Mali
Group to Support Islam and Muslims says it ‘detonated an explosive device’ as French armoured automobile handed by.
Al-Qaeda’s department in North Africa has claimed accountability for killing two French troopers who died when their armoured automobile was hit by an improvised explosive gadget in jap Mali.
The troopers have been on a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering mission within the jap area of Menaka when the blast occurred. The assault got here simply days after three different troops from France have been killed similarly.
The department, referred to as the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), mentioned it “detonated an explosive device” because the automobile was passing, “bringing the toll to five in less than a week”, in an announcement launched by its propaganda platform Al-Zallaqa late on Monday.
The deaths dropped at 50 the variety of French troopers killed within the West African nation since France first intervened in 2013 to assist drive again armed teams.
The GSIM condemned the “indiscriminate” killing of 100 civilians in two villages in western Niger over the weekend, the Site Intelligence Group additionally reported.
“This attack, whoever carried it out, is not different from the massacres of the French occupiers and criminal militias,” GSIM mentioned, including its “jihad” has not turned in opposition to the folks and vowing reprisals.
The group gave the impression to be referring to the Islamic State within the Greater Sahara (EIGS), its rival within the area and with whom it has clashed violently in current months.
A 12 months in the past, French President Emmanuel Macron designated the EIGS because the primary enemy within the Sahel area.
Since then GSIM has grown in power and in November France’s Barkhane power commander Marc Conruyt known as the group the “most dangerous” within the area.
France’s Barkhane operation counts 5,100 troops unfold throughout the arid Sahel area and has been preventing armed teams alongside troopers from Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which collectively make up the G5 Sahel group.
