KIDAL, Mali: A Tuareg militant leader in the volatile north Malian city of Kidal was killed on Saturday when his car exploded barely 300 meters from a UN base where he had been talking with French and UN troops, a Reuters witness and officials said.
A Reuters cameraman saw the car still burning after the blast that killed Cheikh Ag Aoussa.
A spokeswoman for the UN Mali mission, Radhia Achouri, confirmed the incident, which is likely to further ignite tensions between rival pro and anti-government factions of ethnic Tuaregs in Kidal.
A spokesman for French forces in Mali did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Tuareg-led Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival pro-government “Gatia” militia fighters have clashed sporadically since a power-sharing deal, in place since February, began to crumble. Up to 20 people were killed in two days of fighting between them in July.
Aoussa was a senior commander in a CMA-allied group.
A security source suggested Aoussa’s death was the accidental result of running over a land mine. But Almou Ag Mohamed, spokesman for his HCUA militant group, said “it is clear an explosive was attached to his vehicle inside the camp.”
The Tuaregs, nomadic pastoralists who have for centuries survived off trade crossing the Sahara and connecting Africa’s interior with its Mediterranean coast, were at the heart of a 2012 uprising that threw Mali into chaos.
Their rebellion was swiftly hijacked by militants whom the French then intervened in 2013 to chase out.
A UN-backed peace deal between a plethora of Malian armed groups was supposed to draw a line under the violence that has torn apart Africa’s third largest gold producer. Yet it has failed to stop worsening violence in the north and center of this vast, desert nation.
Mali’s military pulled out of Kidal after clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014.
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Explosion kills Tuareg leader outside north Mali UN camp
Explosion kills Tuareg leader outside north Mali UN camp
Militants kill 6 officers and a civilian in ambushes on police vehicles in northwest Pakistan
- Assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat — When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian
- No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A pair of attacks on police vehicles by suspected militants killed at least six police officers and a civilian in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities said.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
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