An imprisoned Mauritanian Salafist, Abu Ayyub al-Mahdi (a.k.a. Ahmed Salim bin al-Hassan), announced the creation of Ansar al Sharia in Mauritania with the goal of implementing sharia and countering an alleged war on Islam. Malian refugees in the M’Bara camp support the proposed deployment of UN peacekeepers to the areas they have fled; concerns remain that terrorists will conduct suicide operations in Mali.
