AQIM leader Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud has confirmed that Almansour Ag Kassam (Almansour Ag Alkassoum), an important jihadist who worked with several al Qaeda groups, was killed by France in November.
Monday’s suicide bombing in Gao was the first claimed suicide bombing of JNIM since July.
The jihadist leader’s speech, while new, continued previous mantras used by JNIM and its predecessor organizations against the various armed militias operating in northern Mali.
As JNIM rallies its members and supporters against France and Mali, it depicts the fight with the two countries as part of al Qaeda’s wider global jihad.
The State Department announced today that it has designated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), al Qaeda’s branch in Mali and West Africa, as a terrorist organization. JNIM and its leader, Iyad Ghali, are openly loyal to al Qaeda and the Taliban’s emir.
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.
Sultan Ould Bady, a veteran jihadist within various al Qaeda groups in Mali and later the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, turned himself in to the Algerian military yesterday.
Rising communal violence in both northern and central Mali further weakens the already fragile state, which in turn, further helps jihadists exploit these problems for their own gain.
The jihadist group claims the bombing, and last week’s bombing at the G5 Sahel base in central Mali, were messages to warn France and its allies about the “costs” of being in Mali.
Only days after a suicide assault on an African military base in central Mali, another suicide car bombing hit French Barkhane troops in the northern city of Gao.
While no group has claimed responsibility yet, it was most likely conducted by al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims.
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.
Burkina Faso’s wanted list gives more information into the inner-workings and operations of Ansaroul Islam, a relatively under-researched and little understood al Qaeda-linked jihadist group.
The weekend clashes are the latest in a series of skirmishes and inter-communal killings between the two Tuareg militias and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
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.
Intercommunal eye for an eye killings have been increasing in the past week with dozens of Tuaregs and Fulani being killed on both sides of the Mali-Niger border. The massacres come in the backdrop of ongoing counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
The group said that four suicide bombers, rather than the previously reported two or three, were used in the April 14 suicide assault on the Timbuktu airport. Additionally, JNIM also denied claims of the use of female suicide bombers.
JNIM claims the brazen assault was in retaliation for the death of several of its commanders and fighters in recent French raids.
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.
JNIM’s new video shows its fighters across Mali and even in Burkina Faso. The video also shows the group’s rising media capabilities.
The Tuareg alliance says the vehicle, which was reportedly used by US troops in last October’s deadly ambush in Niger, was recovered after recent raids on Islamic State-loyal militants in northern Mali.
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 death of Hasan al Ansari and five other senior leaders of JNIM was used as justification for JNIM’s terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso on Friday.
According to a Mauritanian website that often publishes claims from jihadists, al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) claimed yesterday’s terrorist attacks in the Burkinabe capital. JNIM later officially claimed the attacks via its Telegram channel.
The video of Sophie Petronin is similar to January’s proof-of-life video for another JNIM hostage, Gloria Cecilia Narvaez.
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 deadly IED blast comes just a week after major French raids on JNIM positions and leaders near the borders with Algeria.
The State Department has designated Ansaroul Islam, a Burkinabe jihadist group affiliated with al Qaeda’s network in Mali, as a terrorist organization. FDD’s Long War Journal has tracked the rise of the group since its founding in late 2016.