France army kills al-Qaeda-linked commander in northern Mali
The French army says it has killed one of the leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group operating in West Africa.
According to the French army spokesman Gilles Jaron on Thursday, Ahmed al-Tilemsi, the commander of the Al-Murabitoun terrorist group, was targeted and killed in northern Mali.
“Last night … French forces conducted an operation in the Gao region (of northern Mali) in coordination with Malian authorities,” announced Jaron.
Tilemsi was also a member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and a co-founder of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a militant group allegedly launched to propagate the Takfiri terrorist creed throughout the region.
Earlier this year, the US State Department declared Tilemsi a “specially designated global terrorist”, offering USD five million for any information conducive to his arrest.
In 2013, France sent its troops to Mali under the pretext of trying to halt the advance of al-Qaeda-backed rebels in the African country’s north.
The rebels are fighting to gain autonomy in the northern region of Mali.
Chaos broke out in Mali after President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup on March 22, 2012. The coup leaders said they mounted the coup in response to the government’s inability to contain the rebellion in the country’s north.
