Mali said on Monday it had killed a high-value Islamist group commander who helped lead the 2017 attack. Four U.S. soldiers and four Nigerien soldiers killed There was an interpreter nearby.
The U.S. Department of State has proposed $5 million reward The commander, Abu Huzeifa, is a member of an Islamic State-affiliated group who was involved in an attack on U.S. Green Berets and their Nigerien comrades in Tongo Tongo, Niger.
At the time, the attack was the deadliest U.S. military loss in combat in Africa since the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” tragedy in Somalia.
exist a post Mali’s armed forces said on social media on Monday that they “neutralized a major foreign terrorist leader in a large-scale operation in Liptako” on Sunday. Liptako is a tri-border region consisting of parts of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
State and Defense Department officials said Tuesday they were aware of the report but were seeking more information.
Mali has been in crisis since rebels and jihadists took control of large swathes of Mali’s northern desert in 2012. Intervention by foreign troops, led by France and deploying thousands of troops, failed to stop the unrest.
2020, Coup plotters overthrow Mali’s democratically elected government, using the security crisis to justify their seizure of power. But since then, the ruling junta has pursued the same military priorities as foreign militaries, and nearly four years later, analysts say the situation is even worse.
After ten years of fighting Islamists, French troops to withdraw in 2022.Mali’s military junta turns to Russian military advisors and mercenaries In collaboration with the Wagner Group, they are accused commit atrocities in pursuit of militants.
Eric Schmidt Reporting from Washington also contributed.
