Mali leads a ...total fight against Al Qaeda,...

BAMAKO- Mali is conducting a ...total fight against Al Qaeda,... said Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré

• Mali is conducting a “total fight against Al Qaeda,” said Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré, after the announcement of “lethal” skirmishes between the army and elements of the North African branch of Al -Qaeda in north-west of the country.
  
      “This is a total fight against Al Qaeda that we are leading now. I mean total. In the field, in the Sahel-Sahara band, the Salafists and their accomplices who are traffickers, are our enemies”, as he declared during a brief interview on Monday night in Bamako.
  
      “Our troop’s morale is good. But we should not cloud the issue. To win, we are doomed to work with our neighbours, with our partners throughout the Sahel-Sahara band,” he continued, without giving further detail.
  
      According to him, the summit of Heads of State of the Sahel-Sahara band, postponed several times, that it intends to organize in Bamako, will give a “strong signal” in the fight against all armed groups in the Sahel.
  
      “But to be effective against armed gangs, we must ensure the development of the area,” he acknowledged.
  
      A major operation in several countries against the elements of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi) band in the Sahel-Saharan Africa is also in preparation, according to a security source in Bamako.
  
      “With countries like Algeria, and others, we are preparing a major operation against the Salafist band in the Sahel-Saharan Africa,” said Tuesday a senior security in Mali expressing under anonymity.
  
      “We will commit the necessary resources,” added the same source. Algeria has also recently provided Mali with military equipment, according to military sources.
  
      On Monday, the Malian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that a “patrol” had had a “very deadly clashes with armed Salafist groups on 3 and 4 July, in the north-west” in the region of Timbuktu.
  
      “After very severe fighting, losses were recorded on both sides,” said the text without giving details.
  
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.