According to the Bundeswehr, 12 German soldiers were wounded following a suicide attack which took place 140 km from Gao, in Mali. Other sources increase the number of wounded soldiers to 15 and reduce the distance from the city to 94 km.
Local media claim that strangers detonated a car bomb to hit a UN mission patrol MINUSMA. According to other sources, the jihadists instead used a suicide drone (of commercial origin?) In the attack, already seen in previous years in Iraq.
Le loitering ammunition are increasingly taking hold in the arsenals of Stato islamico, as they allow to hit paying targets at significant distances, thus limiting the reaction of the attacked.
The attack targeted a temporary base set up by the peacekeepers near the village of Ichagara, in the northern region of Gao, where there are active insurgents linked to al-Qaeda and at the Stato islamico.
The UN mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, has deployed over 13.000 troops to contain violence by armed groups in the north and center of the West African nation.
This attack also demonstrates that the activity of the jihadist militias in the Sahel is still high, a further demonstration, therefore, that the region, in the coming years, will increasingly be the operational theater of Western forces.
Photo: Bundeswehr archive
