The raid took place on Sunday night. Among the terrorists eliminated is Amada Ag Hama, known as "Abdelkrim the Tuareg", leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The French Tier-1s also confirmed the elimination of Ibrahim Ag Inawalen, known by the name of "Bana". Inawalen has been described by the French Ministry of Defense as the head of Ansar Dine, the local Malian jihadist group.
Ansar Dine, led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, is considered part of the al-Qaeda network in Mali. The jihadist group was formed in the 2011 and from the following year worked with AQIM or Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, with the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and the Tuareg separatist groups to take on the control of northern Mali.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed that Abdelkrim was involved in at least three operations against the French and is suspected of having been the mastermind of the killing, in November, of the two French journalists of Radio France International, Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont.
Fabius then concluded his comment on the raid by stating: "The terrorists should remember that France has a long memory, we will not forget and we will hit even in a hundred years, but we will reach all those who have harmed our nation".
This is a "new blow" against al-Qaeda in Mali after Ahmed al Tilemsi died. The 11 December last year, French special forces eliminated Tilemsi in a raid on Gao. Tilemsi was the leader of MUJAO, which then merged with al-Qaeda to form Al Murabitoon in the 2013.
The French in Mali fear no one
The French military intervention in Mali (former colony), started in January of the 2013. Paris has started Operation Barkhane against al-Qaeda militants in the Region.
The powerful French contingent is in effect a front-line fighting force formed by three thousand men with a single purpose: to eliminate the jihadists that rage from eastern Chad to Mauritania.
The French effort is just beginning. Indeed, Hollande has decided to double his military presence to support the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria. The one deployed in Africa by the French is not a peacekeeping force, but a real army that is completely self-sufficient and specifically trained in the guerrilla. Supported by two companies of the Foreign Legion, the contingent is formed by 3500 soldiers (a number that will double soon).
Opération Barkhane is run by ten different bases scattered throughout the Region. The main base of the French is that of N'Djaména, in Chad, which hosts 800 soldiers. Other 600 soldiers were stationed at the Niamey base in Nigeria, while at the Gao base in Mali, another thousand soldiers were deployed. The command of the French special forces is deployed at the Ouagadougou base in Burkina Faso.
500 the elements of the Commandement des opérations spéciales lined up for hunter killer operations. The French also have three small bases advanced in Tessalit, Mali, for the screening of special departments in the man hunting operations, Fort de Madama in Nigeria and Faya-Largeau in Chad.
Finally, three other bases in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon are managed with local governments. The French force has at its disposal 200 tanks, six drones, eight fighter planes, a dozen transport aircraft and twenty assault helicopters.
Franco Iacch
(photo: Ministère de la Défense)
