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Africa North

Senior Islamic State group commander killed in an operation by Malian state forces, the country's military said.

2024-05-01

[AFRICANEWS] A senior Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group commander wanted in connection with the deaths of US forces in Niger was killed in an operation by Malian state forces, the country's military said.

Abu Huzeifa , known under the pseudonym Higgo , was a commander in the group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara
...the succulent fruit of the union of splinter factions from Mokhtar Bekmokhtar's al-Mourabitunes and MUJAO. Once the dust had settled and the smell of gunsmoke had dissipated, they became the Islamic State in Mali, then adopted their present clever name. They are headed by Adnan Abu Walid Saharaoui. It operates along the borders of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali...
The US State Department had announced a reward of up to $5 million for information concerning him.

Huzeifa is suspected of helping lead a 2017 attack on U.S. and Nigerien forces in Tongo Tongo , Niger , that resulted in the deaths of four Americans and four Nigerien soldiers. Following this attack, the American army reduced its operations with its local partners in the Sahel.

"The identification and evidence collected confirm the death of Abu Huzeifa known as Higgo, a renowned foreign terrorist ," the Malian army said in a statement late Monday.

Moussa Ag Acharatoumane , leader of a Tuareg gang allied with the state, said his forces participated in the operation and that it took place in northern Mali .

A photo of Huzeifa broadcast by state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
shows him in military fatigues, with a long black beard and a machine gun in his hand.

Mali has experienced two coups since 2020 during a wave of political instability that has swept West and Central Africa. The country has been battling an increasingly serious insurgency led by jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group for more than a decade .

The killing of the Islamic State group's commander over the weekend "could mean less violence against civilians in the region, but the threat remains high as there are certainly leaders with similar brutality ready to take control and to prove themselves," said Rida Lyammouri of the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank.

Colonel Assimi Goita , who took power after the second coup of 2021, has promised to end the insurgency. The ruling junta cut military ties with La Belle France due to growing frustration at the lack of progress after a decade of assistance, and turned to Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group for support in security matters.

Mali has also formed a security alliance 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 used to be Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and was chased out in 2014. Now it's the usual army officer type guy, Captain Ibrahim Traore, running things, who's just doing a bang-up job unless he's already been deposed...
, which are also battling increasingly serious insurgencies and have also experienced coups in recent years. Although their armies promised to end insurgencies after deposing their respective elected governments, conflict analysts say violence has instead worsened under their regimes. The three countries share borders in the conflict-hit Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
, and their security forces are overwhelmed in the fight against jihadist violence.

Posted by:Fred

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