Mokhtar Belmokhtar said that his Those Who Sign in Blood Brigade carried out yesterday’s suicide attacks in Niger along with the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. Belmokhtar also promised more attacks in Niger if the government does not withdraw its military from Mali.
Mokhtar Belmokhtar is alive, and announced that his al Mua’qi’oon Biddam, or Those Who Sign in Blood Brigade, carried out the suicide assaults in Niger in conjunction with MUJAO.
The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa claimed credit for a pair of suicide attacks. In one attack, five members of a suicide assault team assaulted a barracks in Agadez, killing 18 soldiers and a civilian. In another attack, a suicide bomber attacked workers at a uranium mine in Arlit.
The al Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa said the suicide attacks were intended to punish Niger for “cooperation with France in the war against Sharia” in Mali.
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Jihadists have launched 12 suicide bombings and assaults in Mali since the beginning of February.
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France is sending special forces to protect the Areva uranium mining sites at Imouraren and Arlit. France derives about 20 percent of the raw material for its nuclear reactors from Niger. Some French forces are said to have arrived in the past week.
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