Malian army captures 11 Tuareg rebels
Posted by africanpress on May 11, 2008
Publisher: Korir, africanpress@getmail.no source.apa
The Malian army and security forces Thursday captured eleven Tuareg rebels during a skirmish in the Kidal region (north), a release revealed in Bamako.
The army says in the release that it also seized two Toyota vehicles, individual and collective weapons, as well as a “sizeable” batch of ammunition.
The troops “recorded no casualties” during the operations which happened during “an inspection and control mission.”
Open hostilities pit the Malian regular forces against dissidents of the Tuareg rebellion, which drew attention on 23 May 2006, by the simultaneous attacks of two military barracks in the north of Mali.
Neither a peace agreement signed in July 2006 in Algiers (Algeria), nor last 3 April cease-fire protocol in Tripoli (Libya) succeeded in ending the conflict, which continues in the form of surprised attacks of military positions or convoys.
A former Tuareg rebel who agreed to join the regular army was the last victim of the conflict. He was killed on Tuesday in Diabali, some 380km in the north of Bamako. The culprits are armed men identified as belonging to a new rebel group.
The dissidents of the Malian Tuareg rebellion, led by their chief Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, demanded in the beginning the autonomy of the Kidal region. They seem to have re-examined downwards their claims, asking from now on nothing more than “the hastened development” of the northern regions of the country.
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African Press International - api
