More than 40 jihadists, including a senior commander have been killed in the past one week in the restive northern Mali according to the UN force MINUSMA. The military raids on jihadist’s positions comes days after they United Nations peacekeepers.
According to the UN force source, at least 20 were killed in a three-hour counter-attack after they raided a camp of Chadian peacekeepers, leaving four troops dead.
MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif highlighted that more 40 terrorists been killed including a right-hand man to Iyad Ag Ghaly, by the name of Abdallaye Ag Albaka,” Annadif. Ag Ghaly, a veteran jihadist, is leader of the shadowy Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) in the Sahel, an associate of the Al-Qaeda. The source further noted that Ag Albaka was number 3 in the GSIM organization.
The military operation came after the jihadists attack targeted a Chadian contingent of MINUSMA at Aguelhok in northern Mali, around 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the border with Algeria.
MINUSMA, whose deployment to Mali began in 2013, is a 15,000-person mission, of which 12,000 are troops. The military troops are a frequent target of the Islamist terrorists affiliated to the Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
