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French forces kill senior jihadi in northern Mali French forces kill senior jihadi in northern Mali
(35 minutes later)
French forces in Mali have killed a senior commander of the al-Mourabitoun Islamist group, who was wanted by the US, during an overnight operation in the northern region of Gao, a defence ministry spokesman has said. French forces in northern Mali have killed a senior commander of the al-Mourabitoun Islamist group who was wanted by the US, a defence ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Ahmed al-Tilemsi was a founding member of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in west Africa, which merged with fighters loyal to veteran Islamist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar to form al-Mourabitoun last year. The US has offered a $5m (£3.2m) reward for information leading to the arrest of Ahmed al-Tilemsi, who took part in the 2011 kidnapping of two French nationals in Niger and of three aid workers in Algeria later that year.
“Last night, we launched an operation in the Gao region in coordination with Malian forces,” Colonel Gilles Jarron told reporters in Paris. He added that al-Tilemsi had been killed and a dozen other Islamists “neutralised”, but he did not specify if they had been killed or arrested. Tilemsi was a founding member of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), which merged with fighters loyal to veteran Islamist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar to form al-Mourabitoun last year.
The US has offered a $5m (£3.2m) reward for information leading to the arrest of al-Tilemsi, who participated in the 2011 kidnapping of two French nationals in Niger. “Last night, we launched an operation in the Gao region in coordination with Malian forces,” Colonel Gilles Jarron told reporters in Paris. He added that Tilemsi had been killed and a dozen other Islamists “neutralised”, but did not specify if that meant killed or arrested.
MUJWA – Belmokhtar’s men and members of al-Qaida’s north Africa arm, AQIM – formed a loose alliance of fighters that seized northern Mali’s desert regions in 2012.
The militants were scattered by a French offensive in January 2013 but France has kept about 3,200 troops in the Sahara-Sahel region as part of a counter-insurgency force.
An additional 200-400 special forces have a mandate to hunt down leaders of the Islamist groups, which have mounted a resurgence in recent months with a series of attacks that have killed dozens of UN peacekeepers in Mali.
The last of the French hostages held by the al-Qaida-linked militants was freed earlier this week, amid claims of a prisoner swap with his abductors.