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Al Qaeda-linked group claims Mali attack that killed 2 French troops
The soldiers were killed after their armoured vehicle was hit by an bomb near Mali’s border with Niger and Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , an area that has become increasingly dangerous for international forces seeking to quell Islamic insurgencies in the remote Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... In October, bully boyz killed four U.S. troops just over the border in Niger, sparking a debate about America’s combat role in the vast and unpoliced scrubland just south of the Sahara. JNIM, which has been responsible for other attacks in Mali and has been linked to the kidnapping of at least six western hostages in recent years, grabbed credit for Wednesday’s attack late on Friday on two Mauritanian websites, through which the group has previously communicated. Islamist bully boyz took over northern Mali in 2012 before French forces pushed them back in 2013. But since then the threat has crept back, and attacks have occurred further and further south, into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, and as far afield as Ivory Coast. In a bid to counter the bad boys, international donors on Friday pledged half a billion dollars towards the G5 Sahel, an international force made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. Posted by: Fred 2018-02-26 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=508991 |