Al Qaeda claims to have killed 50 Russian mercenaries and 10 Malian soldiers

BAMAKO:

An al-Qaeda affiliate said it killed 50 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 10 Malian soldiers in an ambush in Mali’s northern Kidal region near the Algerian border on Saturday, according to the SITE intelligence group.

The ambush came on the same day a Tuareg rebel movement known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) said it had killed and wounded dozens of Malian soldiers and Wagner mercenaries during days of fighting in the border town. Tinjawaten.

The death toll is a major blow, amounting to what appears to be Wagner’s heaviest defeat since he intervened two years ago to help Mali’s junta fight Islamist groups waging an insurgency in the Sahel region since 2012 .

Mali, where the military seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, has said the Russian forces are not Wagner mercenaries but trainers assisting local troops with equipment bought from Russia.

But Wagner said in a rare statement on Monday that his fighters fought alongside Malian soldiers from July 22 to 27 near Tinjawaten and suffered heavy casualties, including the death of their commander Sergei Shevchenko.

Several Russian military bloggers reported at least 20 Wagner kills.

SITE on Sunday quoted a statement by al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (JNIM) that its fighters managed to “trap a convoy of Malian army and Wagner mercenaries in a sophisticated ambush” south of Tinjawaten.

The Malian army and Wagner forces were ambushed after withdrawing from Tinzaouaten, which they had tried to capture from Tuareg-led separatists.

Two security sources said the convoy was attacked by both separatists and JNIM in remote terrain, but that the extent of coordination between the two groups was unclear.

Malian authorities have accused the Tuareg and jihadist groups of collaborating.

Mali’s military said in a statement on Monday that it launched a “stabilization operation” in the rebel-plagued region on July 19 and launched an offensive on July 25.

The sandstorms then played into their opponents’ favor, allowing them to regroup around the convoy. Violent clashes broke out and there was heavy loss of life and property, the statement said, without elaborating.

The Tuareg are an ethnic group that inhabits the Sahara region, including parts of northern Mali. Many of them feel marginalized by the Malian government.

Tuareg-led separatists launched an insurgency in 2012 that was pushed back in Mali’s arid north and later captured by Islamist militant groups.