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| Africa North |
| US sanctions Mali rebel leader |
| 2013-02-27 |
| [News24] The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on a Touareg leader whose cut-thoat group seized much of northern Mali last year and prompted a French military intervention. The State Department designated Iyad Ag Ghali, head of Ansar Dine, a global terrorist. The action blocks any assets he holds in the US and prohibits Americans from doing business with him. The UN also added Ag Ghali to its global sanctions list. Ag Ghali's armed Islamists conquered much of northern Mali after a military coup in Mali's capital, aided by al-Qaeda's North Africa wing. In Timbuktu, he imposed strict Shari'ah law and forced thousands to flee; others were tortured and executed. But a French-led intervention in January has turned the tide, forcing back Ag Ghali's rebels to mountainous hideouts near the Algeria border. Separately, the US made further terror designations on a Pakistain-based Death Eater group and one of its leaders on Tuesday. Since 2006, the Commander Nazir Group "has run training camps, dispatched jacket wallahs, provided safe haven for al-Qaeda gunnies, and conducted cross-border operations in Afghanistan against the United States and its allies," a State Department statement said. The sanctions extend to key commander Malang Wazir. The group is named after Maulvi Nazir, a member of the Taliban but one whose faction agreed to a cease-fire with the Pakistain military in 2009 and did not attack domestic targets. Nazir was killed in a US drone strike in January. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Nothing wrong with a combined approach: deliver the sanction notice taped to the nose of a Hellfire... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2013-02-27 16:09 |
| #1 Sanctions? I think the French approach is more effective. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2013-02-27 11:35 |