Three Malian soldiers died on Saturday in a Muslim extremist attack on the southwestern town of Nara, on the border with Mauritania, with several militants also killed, officials said.
“We deplore the death of three soldiers” in the early morning attack, the Malian government said in a statement, which added that nine of the assailants were also killed as troops responded.
A police source, as well as many local residents, blamed extremists for the attack in the town 380km north of the capital, Bamako.
Photo: EPA
“At least four jihadists were killed by the army. They wore long beards. Drugs were found in the pocket of one of the jihadists,” the source added.
Some of the attackers managed to flee the scene.
A local Nara official said he saw the bodies of two militants on the street.
Photo: EPA
“The market and the shops are closed. Everyone is scared,” he added.
“Everyone hid in their homes. The attackers came out of the forest with many vehicles. They were heavily armed,” an official said on local radio.
The country descended into chaos in 2012 when an insurgency by Tuareg rebels led to a coup in Bamako. Militants linked to al-Qaeda then overpowered the Tuareg to seize control of the north.
A French-led military operation launched in January 2013 drove the extremists out of the region’s towns and cities.
However, the country remains deeply divided, with the Tuareg and Arab populations of the north accusing sub-Saharan ethnic groups in the more prosperous south of marginalizing them.
Tuareg rebels and Muslim militants remain active throughout the north, a vast area the size of France, but attacks outside of the region are rare.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung (袁國勇) has done battle with some of the world’s worst threats, including the SARS virus he helped isolate and identify, and he has a warning. Another pandemic is inevitable and could exact damage far worse than COVID-19 pandemic, said the soft-spoken scientist sometimes thought of as Hong Kong’s answer to former US National Institutes of Health director Anthony Fauci. “Both the public and [world] leaders must admit that another pandemic will come, and probably sooner than you anticipate,” he said at the city’s Queen Mary Hospital, where he works and teaches. “Why I make such a horrifying prediction
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
RISKS FACING MIGRANTS: The boat was carrying more than 80 people hoping to reach the Turks and Caicos Islands amid a spike in violence caused by gangs in Haiti At least 40 migrants have died after a boat they were traveling in caught fire off the northern coast of Haiti, a UN agency said on Friday, with police saying the explosion was sparked by a voodoo ritual gone wrong. The Haitian Coast Guard rescued 41 people, 11 of whom were hospitalized, including some for burns, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. However, “at least 40 migrants have died, and several others were injured,” the IOM said. The fire began when a passenger lit a candle to start a voodoo ritual, police spokesperson Arold Jean said. Survivors told local media that