France kills top Islamic State in the Greater Sahara commander in northern Mali
In a military operation yesterday, the French reportedly killed a top Tuareg commander for the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in Mali’s northern Menaka region.
In a military operation yesterday, the French reportedly killed a top Tuareg commander for the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in Mali’s northern Menaka region.
This is the second video released by ISGS’ Katibat Salahadin in the span of a week, marking a significant uptick in social media activity for the jihadist group.
Months after killing four US Special Forces soldiers, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has been designated as a terrorist group by the US government. Its leader, Abu Walid al Sahrawi, was also designated today.
The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) has claimed its second attack in two months. Both reportedly occurred in the same area of northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali.
Abu Yasir al-Jaza’iri, an Algerian ideologue in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, offers the group’s harshest rebuke of the Islamic State to date.
The two claims of responsibility now confirms that both al Qaeda and the Islamic State are active inside the small West African country.
Around 400 civilians, mainly from a small ethnic group in northern Mali’s rural border areas near Niger, have been killed by the Islamic State since March 8.
Coming roughly a month after France reported it had killed Abu Walid al Sahrawi, the Islamic State’s leader in the Sahel, the Islamic State itself has finally subtly confirmed the reports. The jihadist group has not publicly named a successor.
France says Abu Walid al Sahrawi, the leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, was killed in a drone strike in August. Al Sahrawi became a key figure in the global rivalry between the Islamic State and al Qaeda. His men were responsible for the Oct. 2017 ambush near Tongo Tongo, Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers.
The photo offers a rare look into jihadist governance in the Sahel, in which jihadists loyal to both al Qaeda and the Islamic State wield both direct and indirect control over many rural areas.
Almost 300 people have been killed in a series of mass killings in Niger and on a military position inside Mali. The Islamic State has officially claimed just one of the attacks, but it is believed to have carried out all of the massacres.
In an interview with the Islamic State’s Al-Naba newsletter, Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, attempts to paint al Qaeda’s efforts in the region as rife with internal squabbles and disunity.
In this week’s edition of the Islamic State’s weekly Al-Naba newsletter, the jihadist group claims a series of wide-ranging operations across the Sahel. This includes last month’s massacre of French aid workers in Niger, as well as a spate of battles with al Qaeda’s men.
It is unclear if the unit represents a splinter of al Qaeda’s JNIM, though the group now represents an Islamic State-loyal faction close to the borders with Mauritania.
Over the last month, the jihadist group has killed at least 174 Nigerien soldiers in three separate attacks.
The large video details several major Islamic State operations inside the Sahel over the last few years.
The Islamic State continues to make inroads in the Sahel, conducting several high-profile raids in the border region between Mali and Niger.
Friday’s assault marks the Islamic State’s deadliest attack in Mali to date.
The Islamic State’s men in the Sahel claims another large-scale attack on Nigerien troops near the borders with Mali.
The Islamic State’s men in the Sahel have claimed a recent IED on US troops in Niger, as well as downing a French helicopter and assassinating a Tuareg militia member in Mali.
The jihadist group also claimed an assault on a high-security prison near the capital of Niamey.
The Islamic State has released its first official attack claim from northern Mali.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency, one of the jihadist group’s official media arms, released its first combat video from Mali earlier today. The brief video claimed to show an ambush on French forces somewhere near Mali’s border region with Niger. While no specific date was given, the video likely portrays last month’s Islamic State […]
The Islamic State issued several claims of responsibility for attacks by the group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Today’s claims of responsibility are the first for the group in Burkina Faso since 2016.
French special forces took part in a large-scale joint operation with Malian and Nigerien troops, alongside Tuareg militias, against militants of the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara on April 1.
Sunday’s clashes between the Tuarag alliance and Islamic State-loyal militants in northern Mali is the first since early last month.
The recent battle comes less two weeks after the Tuareg militias last clashed with militants from the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
The operations, which occurred alongside French special forces, were to reportedly kill or capture Abu Walid al Sahrawi, the leader of the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
The Islamic State has officially recognized a loyalty oath sworn by Abu Walid al Sahrawi, a jihadist based in West Africa. Sahrawi first swore his fealty to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in May 2015. It is not clear why it took so long for the so-called caliphate to recognize him as one of its representatives.