Islamist Fighters Slip Back Into Timbuktu and Are Repelled by French and Malians
Source: NYT
A small band of radical Islamist fighters battled French and Malian soldiers for hours in a firefight in Timbuktu on Sunday after infiltrating the Malian city overnight, Malian officials and witnesses said.
The fighting, which was preceded by a suicide attack at a military checkpoint on Saturday night, was the first such violence to reach downtown Timbuktu since January, when French forces arrived and forced out the jihadists who had seized the city in 2012. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“It started after a suicide car bombing” about 10 p.m. on Saturday, Capt. Modibo Naman Traoré of the Malian Army told Reuters. That attack, he said, “served to distract the military and allow a group of jihadists to infiltrate the city by night.”
The attackers appeared to number perhaps 10 or 15, said the French military spokesman, Col. Thierry Burkhard. He said “a half-dozen” were confirmed killed. One French soldier was wounded and evacuated by helicopter for medical treatment, Colonel Burkhard said. A handful of Malian soldiers were wounded, according to news media reports.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/world/africa/islamist-fighters-repelled-in-assault-on-timbuktu.html
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