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French and Malian soldiers are on high alert in the northern town of Gao, a day after Islamist terrorists launched an assault to retake the city they were forced out of two weeks ago.
Residents who hid in their homes during the hours-long attack Sunday, cautiously entered the streets still littered with corpses.
Authorities report the crossfire killed three civilians and wounded at least 10 others, but it is still unclear how many soldiers or militants died.
Heavy gunfire and explosions resounded Sunday through the Saharan town, the largest in northern Mali, as the combined government force, complete with French helicopter gunships, fought the al-Qaeda affiliated "Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa."
Clashes were ongoing for days in areas just outside the city. On Saturday and Friday, suicide bombers attacked an army checkpoint near the entrance to Gao. The two suicide blasts were the first reported in Mali.
The Malian military said the bomber in Saturday's attack was a young Arab man and the "Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa" claimed responsibility.
The terrorist group seized control of Gao in April and had ruled the city until the arrival of French and Malian forces last month. Military officials have said some elements of the group remain in the Gao area, and other terrorists are hiding in the surrounding desert.
The group is a faction of al-Qaida's North African wing which, in loose alliance with the home-grown Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine, held Mali's main northern towns of Timbuktu and Gao for 10 months until the French-led offensive drove them out. VoA.
Islamist terrorists flooded into Mali from Libya, following the fall of Qaddaffi.
Two senior Islamist terrorists have been captured in northern Mali, including a top leader of group Ansar Dine.
The Tuareg separatist group MNLA says it arrested Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed on Saturday near Mali's border with Algeria.
Ag Mohamed is the number-three leader of Ansar Dine and helped impose Sharia law on the city of Timbuktu.
Baba Akhmed is believed to be a member of the Movement for Unification and Jihad in West Africa, also known as MUJAO.
The two groups along with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (West) controlled the major towns of northern Mali for about nine months before being driven out by the French and Malian armies.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that French warplanes were continuing bombing raids on supply routes and training centers in the remote desert of northeastern Mali. He told French radio that the objective is to make it impossible for the rebels to stay in northern Mali long-term.
Also Monday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris and praised the French operation in Mali, calling it "decisive."
Biden also backed France's call for U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed to Mali
President Hollande is pushing for African forces to take over for French troops that have been battling the militants for the past three weeks.
Mr. Hollande made a one-day visit to Mali on Saturday, making brief stops in Sevare, Timbuktu and the capital, Bamako.
He told a cheering crowd in Bamako that French forces are fighting so people in Mali, a former French colony, can live in peace and have democracy.
Mali was plunged into crisis last year when soldiers overthrew the president, and the MNLA and Islamist groups to take control of the north. The Islamists then seized full control of the region and imposed strict Sharia law with measures that included a ban on music and forcing women to wear veils.
The groups also carried out public executions, floggings, and amputations for alleged criminals, drawing strong condemnation for human rights groups and the United Nations. VoA.
News reports say the United States is preparing to establish a base for drones in northwest Africa to boost surveillance of Islamist extremist groups.
Reports quote U.S. officials, on the condition of anonymity, who say the base will likely be located in Niger.
They say if the plan is approved, the base could have up to 300 U.S. military personnel.
Niger is the eastern neighbor of Mali where French and Malian troops are now battling Islamist terrorists.
The New York Times, which first reported the story, quotes one American military official who said the impetus for the base is the conflict in Mali, but added the drone base would also benefit U.S. intelligence and surveillance in the wider region.
The United States has just one permanent military base in Africa - in Djibouti - which is about 5,000 kilometers from Mali. VoA.
By Karen Parrish, AFPS, LISBON, Portugal, Jan. 14, 2013 - U.S. and French defense leaders are hammering out details of intelligence, logistics and airlift assistance the United States will provide to French forces in Mali, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today.
Speaking to reporters on the flight to the Portuguese capital, the secretary said such planned assistance demonstrates U.S. leaders' resolve that "we have a responsibility to go after al-Qaida wherever they are."
"We've gone after them in the FATA," Panetta said, referring to the federally administered tribal areas in Pakistan's northwest. "We're going after them in Yemen and Somalia. And we have a responsibility to make sure that al-Qaida does not establish a base for operations in North Africa and Mali."
French forces began airstrikes in Mali, a former French colony, four days ago. It has been widely reported France began its air campaign to halt the movement south of al-Qaida affiliated extremists, who have held Mali's northern area since April.
Panetta said the United States and its allies have been "very concerned" about AQIM, or al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb," (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic West) and their efforts to establish a very strong base in that area."
The secretary said DOD officials have been working with regional partners to try to develop plans to confront that threat. "I commend France for taking the steps that it has," he added. "And what we have promised them is that we will work with them to ... provide whatever assistance we can to try to help them in that effort."
Officials from the Stuttgart, Germany-based U.S. Africa Command also are discussing military support with France, the secretary said. A senior official traveling with the secretary told reporters that specific U.S. support to French forces in Mali has not yet been defined, but that Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, Africom commander, spoke by phone earlier today from the African continent with the secretary, who was flying to Portugal at the time.
"We'll continue to work with [the French] to ensure that ultimately we do stop AQIM and that the responsibility for assuring security in that region will be passed to the African nations to provide a more permanent security for the sake of the world," Panetta said.
While that longer-term solution develops, the secretary said, he will consult with allies on shorter-term support in France's fight.
"One of the discussions I'll have in Spain regards their concern about what's happening with AQIM in Mali, as well," he said. "And I'll get a better idea of what these other countries may be doing to assist."
The secretary said while al-Qaida members in Mali do not appear to pose an immediate threat to the United States or its allies, "we're concerned any time al-Qaida establishes a base of operations that, while they might not have any immediate plans for attacks in the United States and in Europe, that ultimately ... still remains their objective. And it's for that reason that we have to take steps now to ensure that AQIM does not get that kind of traction."
President Barack Obama yesterday notified Congress, as required by the War Powers Act, that United States troops "provided limited technical support to the French forces" engaged in the attempted rescue of a French hostage in Somalia. French forces reported Denis Allex, who had been a hostage of al-Qaida-affiliated al Shabaab since 2009, was killed in the raid.
U.S. forces took no direct part in the assault on the compound where planners had concluded the French citizen was held hostage, the president wrote. U.S. combat aircraft briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation if needed, but did not employ weapons, he added.
All U.S. forces who supported the operation had left Somalia by about 8 p.m. EST Jan. 11, the president wrote.
"I directed U.S. forces to support this rescue operation in furtherance of U.S. national security interests," the president wrote, "and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as commander in chief and chief executive."
Panetta landed here today for the first leg of a weeklong trip that will also take him to Madrid, Rome and London.
Islamist terrorists are tearing down more ancient mausoleums in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu.
Witnesses and tourism officials say rebels from the Ansar Dine group began destroying the mausoleums Sunday with pickaxes.
The militants destroyed several mausoleums in the city in July, after the U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, put Timbuktu on its list of sites that are in danger.
UNESCO has listed Timbuktu as a World Heritage site for its ancient mosques and shrines, some of which date back to the 15th century.
The sites are revered by many Muslims but Ansar Dine considers them sacrilegious.
Ansar Dine is one of three terrorist groups that seized control of northern Mali earlier this year, after renegade soldiers overthrew the government.
The groups are trying to enforce a strict form of Islamic law across the territory. The U.N. and human rights groups have condemned the militants for abuses that include amputations and floggings of alleged criminals.
On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council authorized the deployment of foreign troops to Mali.
The Economic Community of West African States is has been making plans to send a force of between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers to retrain the Malian army for several months and help retake the north. VoA.
The majority of the troops would come from ECOWAS nations, with several countries already committing support.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said the intervention force was needed to prevent “costly consequences” not just in Mali but the whole of Africa.
”One of the lessons, years of conflict management in our region has taught us, is to treat conflict in one country as a regional challenge requiring a common regional response. This approach makes sense because the crises we have witnessed across West Africa in the past two decades have often generated consequences that have extended beyond these sources and countries of origin.''
The plan also calls for negotiations, but warns that rebel groups have to be committed to Mali as one nation under a secular, central government.
The proposal will be submitted to the United Nations Security Council for review.
Mali has been in chaos since a March 22 military coup toppled the elected government and paved the way for armed groups to seize the north.
More than 300,000 people have fled northern Mali this year, many of them into neighboring countries. Rights groups say those who remained are being subjected to serious human rights violations as Islamist terrorists impose a harsh Sharia law. VoA.
Officials in Niger say five African aid workers who were kidnapped by al-Qaida linked terrorists last month have been freed.
The aid groups BEFEN and Health Alert say the workers were freed on Saturday near Niger's border with Mali. They say a sixth worker who had been kidnapped with the group was shot during the abduction and later died from his wounds.
Officials in Niger say the kidnappers are Islamists based in Mali, who have been linked to a string of abductions.
Mali plunged into chaos in March after a military coup toppled President Amadou Toure and led to the formation of an interim government.
Militants who seized the country's northern region have been trying to enforce Sharia law.
In October, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that clears the way for deployment of forces from the West African bloc ECOWAS. The regional group has proposed sending about 3,000 troops into Mali. VoA.
France says the U.N. Security Council will pass a resolution Friday clearing the way for military intervention in the troubled nation of Mali.
The French mission to the U.N. put out a Twitter message saying the council will adopt the resolution Friday afternoon, New York time.
French officials say the resolution will ask the West African bloc ECOWAS to present a plan within 30 days for deploying forces to Mali. The council would then have to approve the plan in a second resolution.
The west African nation was plunged into crisis in March.
The Islamist terrorists have held public executions, amputations and floggings in an effort to enforce Sharia law, drawing condemnation from the U.N. and human rights groups.
This week, a U.N. human rights official (Ivan Simonovic) said the groups are also enlisting children as soldiers and pushing women into prostitution under the guise of forced marriages.
ECOWAS has offered to send a force of about 3,000 soldiers to stabilize Mali, rebuild the country's shattered army and help drive the militants from the north.
In comments last week, France's envoy to the U.N., Gerard Araud, said the Security Council wants details on the force's composition and objectives. He said the council hopes to authorize deployment of the soldiers as soon as possible but will not give the force “carte blanche.” VoA.
By Nick Simeone, AFPS, WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2012 - The Defense Department continues to assess the security needs of its African partners, some of which face a growing terrorist presence, but is not planning for unilateral military intervention, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said today.
In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, raised the possibly of the need for outside military help to push Islamic militias believed to have links to al-Qaida out of a vast area of Mali.
At a Pentagon news conference today, Little told reporters the military is paying close attention to the situation, but has no plans to intervene unilaterally in Mali or in the region.
"The United States military works very closely with a number of countries in the region to address counterterrorism," Little said. With regard to specific requests for U.S. assistance, Little said "I'm not prepared to make any announcements today, but we continue to assess their needs and, where possible and appropriate, will work closely with our partners in the region."
The French government last week joined the governments of Mali and other West African nations in calling for the creation of an African-led international force to help secure Mali's ungoverned territory. Mali's government also has asked for military intervention from the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, which has intervened in other African conflicts.
Little said the United States would consider requests for help from the group, but the U.S. focus remains on helping the region meet its security challenges on its own. "We're paying very close attention to the situation in the region and stand ready should our partners in the region and regional actors such as ECOWAS request our assistance," he said.
West African defense chiefs will open a two-day meeting Friday to finalize the deployment of a standby force for military assistance and support requested by Mali.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) mission would play a support role in Mali, providing logistical and air support to Malian forces working to retake control of northern areas occupied by Islamist terrorists.
ECOWAS says the meeting in Abidjan comes after an invitation by Mali's government to deploy the mission.
Mali's government has not publicly confirmed that it asked for the ECOWAS assistance. But, a French special representative to the region and the leader of a March 22 military coup in Mali have both reported the request.
Islamist groups linked to al-Qaida now control about two-thirds of Mali's national territory.
The Islamists, along with Tuareg separatists, seized control of the north in April after the coup in the capital, Bamako. Since then, armed groups Ansar Dine and MUJAO have pushed out the separatists and moved to enforce a strict version of Islamic law.
The United Nations says fighting in the north this year has displaced more than 450,000 people. VoA.
Mali's government says it has launched an investigation into the shooting deaths of 16 Islamic preachers at a military checkpoint in the country's central region.
In a statement Sunday, the government said eight Malians and eight Mauritanians had been killed by gunshot in an overnight Saturday incident at the Diabaly checkpoint in the Segou region. The government expressed regret over the deaths and condolences to the victims' families.
Earlier reports said that 12 Mauritanians we killed. Security officials were quoted as saying that the soldiers opened fire after the group failed to obey a command to stop.
The group was in a vehicle on the way to a conference in Mali's capital Bamako when it was stopped at the checkpoint more than 400 kilometers further north.
Reports say the preachers were from the moderate Dawa sect and were not armed, but could have been mistaken for terrorists because of their long beards.
Malian troops are on high alert after Islamic militants took control of the country's north, following a military coup in Bamako in March.
The current leader of the al-Qaida-allied militant group Ansar Dine, which controls northern Mali , is a former Dawa sect member.
The Malian government is trying to regain control of the north from Ansar Dine and other Islamist militant groups.
According to an Algerian official and a spokesman for Ansar Dine, a senior commander of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb died in a car accident Sunday in the city of Gao in northern Mali. The Algerian national Nabil Makhloufi, known as Nabil Alqama, was a military commander of AQIM in the Sahara desert. He was believed to be the deputy of Abu Zeid, the AQIM leader responsible for the death of at least two foreigners kidnapped by his group. VoA.
A French official says Mali has formally asked its West African neighbors to help free the country's north from Islamist terrorists.
France's special representative for the Sahel region, Jean Felix-Paganon, says Mali is asking West African bloc ECOWAS to send “military assistance to stabilize the country and especially to reconquer the north.”
The official told reporters late Tuesday that he learned of the request during a meeting in Burkina Faso's capital with Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore.
ECOWAS has said it is ready to deploy a standby force of some 3,000 troops to Mali, where Islamist terrorist groups are attempting to enforce Sharia, or Islamic law. The Islamist terrorists grew in strength and armaments following the successful overthrow of Qaddaffi in Libya.
One of the groups, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, seized another town this week, moving closer to the territory controlled by Mali's interim government.
The groups seized control of the north in April, after renegade soldiers overthrew the elected government in the capital, Bamako.
The rebels' enforcement of Islamic law has so far led to the stoning death of an unmarried couple, the amputation of limbs and a ban on non-Islamic music.
One group, Ansar Dine, destroyed ancient Muslim tombs on the grounds that people worshipped at the sites, a practice deemed un-Islamic.
The United States and United Nations have condemned the militants' actions, and U.N. aid agencies say the militants' actions have worsened a humanitarian crisis in the region caused by drought and high food prices.
Mali's interim government has vowed to retake the north. VoA.
A spokesman for an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group in northern Mali says its members are “ready to die” in order to Sharia law.
In an interview with VOA , the spokesman for Islamist group Ansar Dine defended actions such as amputating the hands of thieves, destroying historic sites and silencing all non-Islamic music.
Islamist terrorists helped seize northern Mali from government forces five months ago, and later took full control of the region.
Ansar Dine spokesman Sanda Ould Boumama said shortly after taking control Islamists began teaching people about “all things that are forbidden by their religion.” He said the population was initially “very reluctant” to accept the terrprists' point of view. But he said eventually they did and – in his words – “now we don't have any problem.”
United Nations officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have accused groups in northern Mali of extremist and criminal activities.
Boumama defended recent punishments by extremists, including public floggings and the amputation of a suspected thief's hand.
“We are Muslims. We are going to implement Sharia law, and Sharia law punishes thieves this way.”
In July, Ansar Dine executed a couple accused of adultery by stoning them to death.
Boumama also justified the destruction of the ancient tombs of Muslim saints in Timbuktu, saying it is forbidden to pray there.
This week militants ordered radio stations in the region to stop broadcasting all non-Islamic music, saying it is “forbidden” by Islam.
Witnesses say Ansar Dine and another group, MUJAO, are being supported by al-Qaida's North African branch, known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (West).
The United Nations and western powers have expressed concern that northern Mali is becoming a safe haven for terrorists.
Mali's interim government has vowed to retake the north from extremists.
The 15-member West Africa regional bloc ECOWAS has offered to send more than 3,000 troops to help restore order in Mali. The bloc is awaiting a formal request from Mali's new national unity government. VoA.
Tens of thousands of protesters crowded the stadium of Mali's capital Bamako Sunday to demand government action to re-establish control in the country's north and restore peace in the western African nation.
Many Malians accuse the interim leadership of internal bickering which they say has enabled Islamists terrorist groups in the north to take hold. Meanwhile, those groups are seeking to impose Sharia laws in the areas they have occupied. Last week they caused outrage by amputating a hand of a suspected thief.
The West African bloc ECOWAS has said it is ready to deploy about 3,000 troops to help restore legitimate rule in northern Mali.
The country's interim President Dioncounda Traore has said he will make the request once a unity government is formed.
Mali's interim Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra took over in April to lead the country until a more representative government can be elected. But he refuses to step down and has been accused of blocking the move to form a unity government. VoA.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon is calling for sanctions in Mali, where al-Qaida-linked terrorists are enforcing Sharia law in the north.
In a speech to the U.N. Security Council Wednesday, Mr. Ban urged member nations to seriously consider travel and financial sanctions against those he said are engaged in “terrorist, religious extremist or criminal activities” in Mali.
He said an influx of “regional and international jihadists” raises concern that northern Mali is becoming a safe haven for terrorists.
Two groups with alleged links to al-Qaida — Ansar Dine and MUJAO — seized control of the north after a March 22 coup in the capital, Bamako.
Mr. Ban noted that Ansar Dine has destroyed ancient Muslim mausoleums in the city of Timbuktu. The group also has executed a couple accused of adultery, while MUJAO tried to amputate the hand of a man accused of stealing.
A West African mediator visited northern Mali Tuesday and met with Ansar Dine to see if there is any chance of peace talks. Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibril Bassole, representing the West African bloc ECOWAS, said he told Ansar Dine it must distance itself from terrorists.
Bassole said ECOWAS is trying to promote dialogue. ECOWAS, however, also has offered to deploy a force of more than 3,000 soldiers to help retake the north. The bloc says it is waiting for a formal request from Mali's interim government.
Mr. Ban said the conflict in Mali is making a bad humanitarian situation even worse. He said more than 174,000 Malians have been internally displaced, and more than 250,000 are refugees in neighboring countries. VoA.
A journalist in Mali has been badly beaten by Islamists occupying the north of the country, after reporting on the Islamists' failed plans to amputate a thief's hand.
Malick Aliou reported on a demonstration by hundreds of protesters who came to the town square in Gao Sunday to try to prevent the Islamists from carrying out the amputation.
He is a local radio reporter and also contributes stories to the Voice of America. VOA's French to Africa service says Aliou has regained consciousness but is still at the hospital in Gao.
Residents say more protesters took to the streets Sunday evening after hearing about the attack on Aliou.
Gao is controlled mainly by the Islamist group MUJAO. That group, along with several other Islamist groups, seized control of northern Mali during the chaos that followed a March coup.
Last week, in the small Malian town of Aguelhok, another armed Islamist group, Ansar Dine, publicly stoned an unmarried couple.
Mali's government has vowed to do all it can to retake the north. VoA.
Islamist militants in northern Mali say they have executed a man and a woman for alleged adultery.
Sanda ould Bouamama, a spokesman for Islamist group Ansar Dine, told VOA the group carried out the executions Sunday in Aguelhok, a small town in Mali's Kidal region.
Bouamama said the man and woman received, in his words, “the punishment called for under Islam: death.”
The French news agency AFP reports the couple was placed in two holes and stoned to death in front of some 200 people in the center of Aguelhok.
Islamist groups and Tuareg separatists seized control of northern Mali in April, after renegade soldiers toppled the government in Mali's capital, Bamako.
The al-Qaida-linked Islamists have since taken full control of the north and imposed a strict version of Islamic law, despite protests from much of the population.
On Sunday, Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traore announced plans to overhaul his transitional government and request foreign help in retaking the north.
The speech was his first address to the Malian people since his return to Bamako Friday from medical treatment in France. Anti-government protesters stormed the presidential palace in May and severely beat Mr. Traore in his office. VoA.
The African Union Peace and Security Council, meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa Saturday, warned that Islamists in northern Mali are intent on creating a new sanctuary for their activities.
AU Chairman Jean Ping called the situation one of the “most serious crises to confront the continent.” And AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra said the strengthening of the grip of terrorist and criminal groups poses a serious threat to international peace.
Radical Islamists overtook the Mali's vast northern desert in the wake of a rebellion launched by Tuareg separatists.
The AU is working with the regional bloc ECOWAS and the U.N. to support Mali's interim government, installed after a March 22 coup, and to discuss options for confronting the Islamist insurgency. VoA.
The United Nations has expressed concern about the growing terror threat in northern Mali and has asked member states to help identify terrorist suspects.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Thursday noting the presence of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the north of Mali.
The resolution expressed concern about the rising number of weapons and kidnappings in the area. The Security Council called on countries to submit the names of groups and individuals with links to al-Qaida, particularly in northern Mali and the Sahel region.
The al-Qaida-allied group Ansar Dine helped seize the north from government troops after a March coup. Witnesses say the number of al-Qaida members in the region has increased since then.
The Security Council said Thursday it would study a request to authorize the deployment of troops to Mali by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.
It also called on U.N. members to help Mali rebuild its military so that it can retake the north from al-Qaida and its allies.
Hardline Islamists helped Tuareg separatists take control of northern Mali after the overthrow of Mali's government in March. But since then, the Islamists have pushed out the separatists and taken full control of major cities including Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.
The U.N. condemned Ansar Dine's destruction of ancient Muslim shrines in Timbuktu and warned that destruction may violate international law. VoA.
Witnesses told VOA Saturday that members of the Ansar Dine Islamist group are attacking the historic sites with axes and other instruments.
Witnesses say the mausoleum of a revered Muslim saint, Sidi Mahmoud, has been destroyed. Timbuktu has been listed by UNESCO as an endangered world heritage site.
UNESCO says Timbuktu was once an intellectual and spiritual capital, as well as a center for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries.
UNESCO said on its website Thursday that it had decided to place Timbuktu on its endangered list because its sites were “threatened by the armed conflict in the region.”
The U.N. agency says it is concerned about trafficking in cultural objects from Timbuktu's sites, especially “important ancient manuscripts” that could be “looted and smuggled abroad by unscrupulous dealers.”
Timbuktu is home to thousands of ancient manuscripts, preserved in family homes and private libraries under the care of religious scholars. VoA.
Even before they seized full control of the Malian city of Gao this week, Islamist terrorists imposed sharia law on the town's residents.
VOA French to Africa reporter Idriss Fall, who spent several days in Gao last week, found the restrictions extended to the city's lone operating school, where militants forced teachers to segregate boys and girls.
Fall spoke to the head of the school, Amadou Sidi Toure:
Fall says that he noticed the classes are segregated. Toure says, “That is because the Islamists demanded that boys not be seated next to girls.”
The schools in Gao were shut down in April when the Tuareg separatist group MNLA and Islamist group Ansar Dine seized control of northern Mali. However, Toure and other teachers organized an informal school for students trying to get their high school diploma or trade certificates.
Fall noted that, while most women in Gao are wearing Islamic headscarves, the director of Gao's pedagogic training center, Toure Oulematou Maiga, does not.
Maiga says, “I am almost veiled!” and laughs. She adds, “It is our tradition to wear the veil on our shoulders.” Fall says, “But the Islamists want you to wear it over your head, baring only your eyes.” Maiga replies, “Yes, but I don't, because I prefer it this way, and I have never had any problem.”
Fall spoke to several students at the school who said they do not mind being segregated. One girl, Siatou Toure, said she does not mind wearing a veil either, although, she adds, she feels forced to wear it.
As noted in an earlier report, Fall found that some residents of Gao have defied efforts by Ansar Dine and the al-Qaida-linked group MUJAO (The Unity Movement for Jihad in West Africa) to enforce their strict form of sharia, or Islamic law. It remains to be seen whether that defiance will continue now that the MUJAO group has driven the MNLA out of Gao. VoA.
Witnesses in northern Mali say at least 20 people were killed Wednesday in clashes between Islamist militants and rebels fighting for a separate Tuareg state in the region.
A VOA reporter said the al-Qaida-linked group MUJAO (The Unity Movement for Jihad in West Africa) seized control of a key city of Gao from the separatist group MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) after exchanging heavy weapons fire throughout the day. He said the exact toll was not immediately clear as many were injured, among them civilians. He said after the separatist rebels were driven out of Gao, life resumed its course, with shops opening and traders returning to their places in the market.
The MNLA and the Islamist group Ansar Dine seized control of northern Mali earlier this year. Both groups are made up of Tuareg tribesmen from different various clans. But while the MNLA wants an independent Tuareg state named Azawad in Northern Mali, the Islamist militants say they want a unified state of Mali governed by sharia law. The two sides have clashed in recent weeks.
In the capital Bamako Wednesday, refugees from northern Mali protested for a second straight day outside the prime minister's office calling for government intervention in the north.
Hundreds gathered for a sit-in, chanting “Free the North” and “Send the army to the North.”
The Malian army is struggling to reorganize after a coup in March of this year.
Since then, an interim government has taken control and is working to organize new elections. The Tuareg groups have used the unrest in the capital to seize control of the north.
Leaders of the regional group of states ECOWAS said they will not tolerate the situation and have offered troops to help Mali's government quell the rebellion in the north. VoA.
A rebel group seeking to create an independent secular state in northern Mali has met for the first time with the West African mediator for the Malian crisis.
Three leaders from the Tuareg-led National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or MNLA, held talks Saturday with the mediator, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.
Mr. Compaore's foreign minister, Djibril Bassole, also participated in the talks in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou.
One of the Tuareg leaders, Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assaleh, said the group accepts the mediation of the Economic Community of West African States . He also said independence does not necessarily mean territorial separation from Mali, but could involve economic and cultural independence.
He said the rebels reject any Islamist and terrorist groups in northern Mali.
Tuareg rebels tried to sign a deal last month with an Islamist group in Mali, al-Qaida-linked Ansar Dine, that called for the two sides to join forces for an independent state of Azawad. But the talks fell through. The rebels would not agree on the state operating under strict Islamic law, or Sharia.
Mali's transitional government has rejected the rebels' declaration of independence in the north. VoA.
Tuareg rebels in Mali have called off an agreement with an Islamist group to create an independent, Islamic state in the north of the country.
In an e-mailed statement Friday, a senior member of the Tuareg-led National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad said the rebels are pulling out of the agreement to maintain their “staunchly secular” character.
The deal, signed on May 26 in the northern town of Gao, called for Tuareg rebels and the al-Qaida-linked extremist group Ansar Dine to join forces for an independent state of Azawad.
Tuareg rebels and a militant Islamic sect in Mali say they have joined forces to create an independent, Islamic state in the north.
The new alliance is made up of Tuaregs with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, and members of the al-Qaida-linked extremist group Ansar Dine.
The groups say they signed the agreement late Saturday in the northern town of Gao.
The deal calls for the two sides to join forces in order to create an independent state of Azawad, which is to operate under strict Islamic law, or Sharia.
West African bloc ECOWAS says it will reimpose sanctions on junta leaders in Mali if they block efforts to restore civilian rule.
The ECOWAS Commission said Monday it condemns what it called “continued interference with the transition” by junta chief Captain Amadou Sanogo and his allies.
On Saturday, two ECOWAS envoys quit talks with the junta because of an impasse over who will head a transitional government.
The 40-day mandate of interim president Dioncounda Traore runs out next week, and Sanogo reportedly wants to be installed as Mali's transitional leader.
Mali's interim president arrived in Bamako to take office after military coup leaders agreed to hand power to a civilian government in a deal with neighboring countries announced Saturday.
Former speaker of parliament Dioncounda Traore will serve as president with a transitional government until elections are held. He flew into Mali Saturday from a temporary exile in neighboring Burkina Faso.
Ivory Coast official Adama Bitongo said a regional 15-member bloc was lifting the sanctions imposed on Mali to force the military to return power to civilian leaders after reaching an agreement with coup leaders late Friday.
“As a consequence the president of ECOWAS, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, in agreement with his peers, has decided to immediately lift the sanctions against Mali.''
Tuareg rebels in northern Mali proclaimed independence on Friday, and asked for international recognition of their so-called “Azawad” nation.
The African Union quickly rejected the rebels' declaration, dismissing it as “null and of no value whatsoever.”
The president of neighboring Niger also rejected the proclamation. In an interview Friday with VOA , Mahamadou Issoufou said, “Mali is one and indivisible.”
Former colonial power France also rejected the rebels' move. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said a unilateral declaration of independence that is not recognized by African countries has no meaning.
Witnesses in northern Mali told VOA that Tuareg rebels had reached Timbuktu and reported fighting and looting in the historic town.
Timbuktu was the last key city in the north that had not been taken by the rebels. Tuareg fighters seized the city of Gao from the Malian army late Saturday and the provincial capital, Kidal last week.
On Saturday, military junta leaders met with Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Compaore, in Ouagadougou to discuss ways to settle the Mali crisis.
The Mali representatives said President Compaore rejected their request for help battling the rebels in Mali and called for coup leaders to restore the constitution.
Witnesses tell VOA that separatist rebels in Mali have entered the strategic northern town of Gao, one day after they overtook the provincial capital of Kidal.
A VOA reporter on the scene says there are eyewitness accounts of Tuareg rebels in vehicles entering Gao, carrying the Azawad flags of their planned homeland. Heavy gunfire could be heard, and witnesses say army troops have launched a response using helicopters.
Tuareg rebels began their insurgency in mid-January, armed with weapons brought into the country following the fall of neighboring Libya. The rebel's recent advancement has been aided by confusion caused by last week's coup in Mali's capital, Bamako. Mid-ranking soldiers overthrew the democratically elected government of President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22nd after accusing leaders of not providing adequate resources to fight the Tuareg rebellion in the north.
Malian coup leader Amadou Sanogo told VOA in a phone interview Friday that Mali, as part of the regional group known as the Economic Community of West African States , needs international support to protect its territorial integrity against the advancing Tuareg rebels.
Coup leaders are facing growing international pressure to give up power, especially from its neighbors. ECOWAS has given Sanogo until Monday to restore the country's constitutional order or face harsh economic sanctions.
Sanogo said he is now head of state in Mali and has all the honors and privileges that go with it, including the support of the Mali people. The coup came just weeks before elections and the scheduled end of President Toure's term. VoA
The United States says it is suspending aid to Mali's government following last week's military coup there.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland Monday said $60 million to $70 million in aid may be affected by the decision. However, she said the United States will continue to give food and humanitarian assistance.
She said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke Monday to Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara and noted that the United States supports the efforts of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to help resolve the situation.
The U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, William Fitzgerald, told VOA that the situation in Mali is very serious.
The men behind Mali's surprise coup are calling for calm, trying to reassure a wary public faced with looting and growing shortages of food and fuel.
Mali's state-run television Saturday aired a statement by coup leader Amadou Sanogo intended to dispel rumors that he had been killed.
“I am Captain Sanogo and I am here in good health, all is well.”
Sanogo also said his men's primary mission was to preserve Mali's territorial integrity and “the security of people and their belongings.”
Video from Mali's capital has shown widespread looting, with debris scattered in the streets. Some residents say they are afraid to go out, accusing soldiers of taking what they want at gunpoint.
There have also been long lines at gas stations. And fears are growing that food and fuel are running out.
Coup spokesman Amadou Konare used state TV to demand gas stations reopen.
Yemen swore in a new government as battles with Al-Qaeda continue.
Palestinians have gotten the underwear in a bunch over Candidate Gingrich's comment that they are Arabs, without further label prior to the Twenthieth Century.
Syrian Government Forces killed 4 civilians gathered for a child's funeral. Another 6 were slaughtered in Homs and other provinces today and 24 yesterday, including kids, as the massacres grow to more than 4,000 killed and the opposition calls for a National Strike.
Al-Qaeda in Africa has claimed responsibility for previous Mali and Timbuktu kidnappings.
A combined Afghan and coalition security force captured the senior Haqqani network leader in Afghanistan during a security operation in Jani Khel district, Paktiya province, Tuesday.
Security forces detained Haji Mali Khan, uncle of Siraj and Badruddin Haqqani and the senior Haqqani commander in Afghanistan. He was one of the highest ranking members of the Haqqani network and a revered elder of the Haqqani clan.
He reportedly worked directly under Siraj Haqqani, and managed bases and had oversight of operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mali Khan moved forces from Pakistan to Afghanistan to conduct terrorist activity. Jalaluddin Haqqani consistently placed Mali Khan in positions of high importance.
26 June 2011 VOA News Mauritania says 15 al-Qaida fighters have been killed and nine captured in a joint operation with Mali against an al-Qaida terrorist camp in Mali.
A colonel said Sunday two Mauritanian soldiers were also killed in Friday's raid on the camp in the Wagadou forest region near Mali's border with Mauritania.
He said soldiers from Mali have also captured nine al-Qaida fighters.
Armies from both countries are engaged in a military operation aimed at rousting al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb group from their camps near the border areas.
Terrorists from the al-Qaida North African affiliate have used the camps to launch attacks in the region.
Two French hostages have been killed in Niger after being abducted late Friday in Niger's capital.
The French defense ministry says the hostages were killed during a gun battle with their kidnappers along Niger's border with Mali.
In a written statement, Defense Minister Alain Juppe says several of the kidnappers were overpowered in an operation by Niger's national guard that was coordinated with French troops in the region. After the fighting the two hostages were found dead.
VOA News: Security officials in Mali say two people were wounded Wednesday when a man threw an explosive device at the gate of the French embassy in Bamako.
Police said the man they arrested for the attack says he is a Tunisian citizen and a member of al-Qaida. Security guards at the embassy said a man fired shots and threw an explosive device at the embassy gate.
Malian police officials said the device was a gas cylinder. Witnesses said the wounded are both Malian.
The north African branch of al-Qaida operates across the Sahel region, along the margins of the Sahara Desert, and has staged a number of bombings and kidnappings in recent years.
Monday, November 8th, 2010 VOA News Mali and Mauritania have launched joint military patrols in an effort to combat al-Qaida-linked militants.
Malian military sources say troops from both countries are patrolling an area of northern Mali, 80 kilometers north of Timbuktu, that has seen increased activity by Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
Malian officials say the troops will cross over into Mauritania if necessary.
The Spanish government says two aid workers kidnapped by an al-Qaida group in Mauritania last year have been freed. A government spokesman Monday confirmed the release of Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta, and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero later made a statement during a brief press conference in Madrid.
Media reports earlier said Pascual and Vilalta were being taken from a remote hideout in Mali to Burkina Faso, where Spanish officials were waiting to pick them up.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb kidnapped Pascual, Vilalta and a female co-worker last November. The woman, Alicia Gamez, was freed in March. All three work for the Spanish aid group Solidarity Action.
The head of al-Qaida's branch in North Africa says his group has killed a French hostage in response to a raid by France and Mauritania against the militant group.
In an audio message broadcast Sunday on the Arabic network Al-Jazeera, a man identified as the leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb said Michel Germaneau was killed in retaliation for the death of six al-Qaida members during the raid conducted last week in Mali by Mauritanian troops backed by French special forces.
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Go to War against the Nazis with SSG Smith of the 94th Infantry Division. Review: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2010/04/everymans-war-vet.html.html
Ace Of Spades: Why Language Matters In this article, Ace of Spades demonstrates how the writing style of "journalists" and other writers is purposely used to influence the electorate. He explains this far better than I have been able to do, but this is the foundation of why I could no longer be silent.
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