A Mauritanian military source said al-Qaeda militants in Mali were left without food and ammunition after three days of army strikes, with the situation “under control” on Monday.
Mauritanian warplanes on Sunday attacked militants of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), destroying three vehicles carrying fighters. They were accused by Malian politicians of having killed two civilians.
Official figures released by Mauritania on Saturday said the fighting had left 12 dead and an unknown number of wounded in the Aqim camp, with six dead and eight wounded in the ranks of the army.
A high-placed military source in Nouakchott told Agence France-Presse on Monday: “The situation is under control and our army has done a good job in ensuring the security of our country and our sub-region.”
“The terrorists are short of everything, food, support, a base and ammunition depots, at least in the whole area west of Timbuktu on the border with Mauritania, where we have conducted operations against them.”
The Mauritanian army launched the offensive on Friday after a convoy of militants was spotted approaching the Mauritanian border from Mali.
On Sunday, a plane bombed three vehicles carrying Aqim members.
A local mayor in Mali denounced the air raids, saying the victims had been Malian civilians.
“Two women from our region are dead and four men are wounded after gunfire from a Mauritanian plane this morning on their vehicle,” Mohamed Lamine Ould Sidate, mayor of the town of Ber, said on Sunday. “We are angry. We, the civilians, we have nothing to do with this business and here they are killing us.”
A source at the hospital said one of the dead women was very young. And one Malian security source spoke of a blunder by the Mauritanian army.
A senior Mauritanian officer dismissed the claims of civilian casualties.
“Our targets are armed terrorists,” the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. “If there is anyone who profits from these kinds of allegations, it is certainly propaganda of the terrorists.”
Support
The head of Mauritania’s ruling party, Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamed Lemine, urged support for a “holy war against terrorists.”
“We are engaged in battle with extremists who have tarnished the image of our sacred religion as well as the image of Muslims,” said Ould Mohamed Lemine, a former defence minister.
In Niger, a government spokesperson denied the targeted militants were those suspected to have kidnapped seven foreigners, including five French nationals, from the north of the country on Thursday and then taken them to Mali.
They “are not those who took the hostages”, said Laouali Dan Dah, but added: “However, it cannot be excluded that they are in touch with the group that took the hostages.”
On Thursday, suspected Aqim militants in northern Niger kidnapped five French nationals, a Togolese and a Madagascan.
French officials have said they believe the kidnappers were connected to Aqim and had taken the hostages to Mali.
In July, French commandos accompanied Mauritanian troops in a raid on an al-Qaeda camp in Mali, which left seven militants dead but failed to find French hostage Michel Germaneau, now known to be have been executed.
Security sources in Mali and Niger, meanwhile, said French reconnaissance planes had been searching several countries in the Sahel region since Thursday’s abductions.
The Sahel is a mainly desert region that covers Mali, southern Mauritania, southern Niger and several other countries, and includes areas where the north African branch of Osama bin Laden’s terror network operates. — AFP