“Islamic State fighters attacked our place within the village of Talataye and our combating unit lastly withdrew from the village,” stated Fahad Ag Almahmoud, secretary common of GATIA, an umbrella group representing previously armed teams that signed a peace settlement with the Malian authorities.
However Almahmoud stated it’s unclear whether or not the militants management the village following the air strikes.
“Final we heard, the Islamic State fighters took management of the village all night time, however this morning there have been air strikes by the Malian military on the positioning. At this second, we nonetheless don’t know if they’re nonetheless within the village or if they’ve withdrawn,” he stated.
Extremist teams have up to now briefly seized cities and vilages. In September 2016, al-Qaeda-linked fighters took management of the central city of Boni earlier than abandoning the city a day after the assault. Final month Islamic State-linked militants briefly took management of the city of Tessit within the Menaka area.
However some observers worry that the Malian military and its U.N. allies will likely be unable to maintain extremists from regaining energy with out French navy help.
In 2012, extremists seized energy in main cities throughout Mali’s north, implementing strict Islamic regulation generally known as Shariah that included amputating the arms of suspected thieves and publicly whipping ladies for carrying clothes deemed too revealing.
The extremists fled into the encompassing desert when former colonial energy France launched a navy intervention in 2013. They’ve spent the final decade attacking the Malian navy and a U.N. peacekeeping power making an attempt to stabilize the nation.
Frustration with the assaults helped gasoline help for coup chief Col. Assimi Goita, who overthrew Mali’s democratically elected president two years in the past. Goita and his junta assured Malians that they’d do a greater job of beating again the insurgents. However spiraling tensions between Goita and France resulted in final month’s pullout of two,400 French troops.
Related Press author Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.
