Mali’s government vows to recover territory lost to Islamists

However the previously unknown Ansar Dine group, fighting on their flanks
later seized the upper hand.

Openly allied with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), they have since
pushed the Tuareg rebels from all positions of power.

The international community fears the vast desert area will become a new haven
for terrorist activity and the Islamists have threatened any country that
joins a possible military intervention force in Mali.

Sources claimed last night that AQIM had planted landmines around the city of
Gao, effectively taking its residents hostage.

Mossa Ag Attaher, spokesman for a Tuareg rebel National Movement for the
Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), said the group was “using the population
as hostages, as a human shield to protect itself from an MNLA counter-attack”.

The North African Al-Qaeda franchise and its offshoot Movement for Oneness and
Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) forced their former MNLA allies out of the city
in deadly clashes last week.

“Many people are trying to escape, to take the bus to go to Bamako, but
the Islamists are stopping them,” said Mr Attaher.

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