Al Qaeda camp in Mali under attack


BBC:

Mauritanian and Malian soldiers have raided an al-Qaeda camp in western Mali, defence sources said.

A Malian security source said there had been "fierce fighting" at the base in the Wagadou forest region on Friday, including the use of heavy weapons.

Wagadou, near Mauritania's border, is an area where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are known to operate.

Earlier this month, Mali and Mauritania agreed to lead a joint operation to tackle the al-Qaeda offshoot.

The attack took place at about 1745 local time (1745 GMT) on Friday and involved air strikes, according to a Mauritanian source cited by AFP news agency.

The source said the "terrorists" had struck back with "heavy weapons".

"The definitive toll on the enemy side will only be known at dawn but it will be heavy. The tents of the camp and three vehicles have been destroyed," the source said.

"We are in control of the situation and the zone has been secured."

...
It sounds like they will have to wait for daybreak to find out what they are in control of. My speculation is that they have isolated the camp, but have not yet cleared it for enemy troops.  The attack was evidently north of Bamako between the town and the border.

Al Qaeda in Mali has been a link in the drub trade from Venezuela and other parts of South America. The drugs are then smuggled into Europe through the North African countries. I am glad to see government authorities are trying to clean out their latest nest.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t...
Read more

Is the F-35 obsolete?

Headline USA: Pentagon Fires Back after Musk Calls Its Most Expensive Project ‘Obsolete’ 'Yeah, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently, a private citizen, I'm not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35....'   ... ... Drones appear to be replacing jets for many operations.  The Russia-Ukraine war is an example of that.  Drones are often hard to detect and can be used for intelligence operations as well as for attacking enemy targets.  It would not surprise me to see drones engaging other drones in combat.  They also cost much less than manned fighters.  
Read more