| Battle of Garn-Akassa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Insurgency in the Sahel | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Mali |  AQIM | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 16-26 killed | ||||||
On June 16, 2009, Malian forces clashed with jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Garn-Akassa, Kidal Region, Mali.
| Battle of Garn-Akassa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Insurgency in the Sahel | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Mali | AQIM | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 16-26 killed | ||||||
On June 16, 2009, Malian forces clashed with jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Garn-Akassa, Kidal Region, Mali.
In the late 2000s, jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had an extensive network of bases in the Adrar des Ifoghas of rural Kidal Region. Mali. Two weeks before the battle in Garn-Akassa, AQIM the English hostage Edwin Dyer, sparking international condemnation. [1] A week later, AQIM assassinated the Malian colonel Lamana Ould Bou at his home in Timbuktu. Bou was considered AQIM's highest-priority target, as he had helped release several European hostages and contributed to the arrests of several high-ranking jihadist leaders. [2]
The offensive against the jihadists in Garn-Akassa was the first major military operation conducted by Mali since the beginning of the AQIM insurgency in 2005. [3] While little is known about what occurred, the offensive took place in and around the locality of Garn-Akassa, west of Tessalit and on the border with Algeria and Mali. [4] A Malian security source stated that "when [they] took possession of the Islamist base, we counted 26 enemies killed. Some were even buried in a mass grave by the Salafists who fled." [5] [6] One source told AFP that it was "certain that Malians have taken control of a perimeter hitherto considered a zone of action of the jihadists. The reports reaching us show 16 deaths." [5] The Malian army stated there were no losses within their ranks. [7]
The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa or the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, was a militant Islamist organisation that broke off from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb with the intended goal of spreading jihad across a larger section of West Africa, as well as demanding the expulsion of all French interests that operate in West Africa, which they regard as "colonialist occupiers".
Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, was an Algerian national and Islamist jihadi militant and smuggler who, in about 2010, became one of the top three military commanders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a Mali-based militant organization. He competed as the chief rival of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian national who had become the major commander in AQIM and later head of his own group. Both gained wealth and power by kidnapping and ransoming European nationals. After taking control of Timbuktu in 2012, Abou Zeid established sharia law and destroyed Sufi shrines.
Al-Mourabitoun was an African militant jihadist organization formed by a merger between Ahmed Ould Amer, a.k.a. Ahmed al-Tilemsi's Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Al-Mulathameen. On 4 December 2015, it joined Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group seeks to implement Sharia law in Mali, Algeria, southwestern Libya, and Niger.
On January 15, 2016, unknown militants ambushed Malian forces near Wanna, in Goundam Cercle, Mali.
Nabil Makhloufi, nom de guerre Nabil Abou Alqama, was an Algerian jihadist who fought in the Algerian Civil War and the Mali War, and served as the head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)'s Sahara region between 2011 and 2012.
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Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou nom de guerre Abu Qum-Qum was a Mauritanian jihadist and the founder of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO/MOJWA).
Abu Bakr al-Nasr, nom de guerre L'Égyptien, was an Egyptian jihadist who served as the emir of the Malian jihadist group Al-Mourabitoun from its foundation in 2013 until his death in 2014.
On January 5, 2015, militants from Katiba Macina and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) overran Malian defenses and briefly captured the city of Nampalari, Mali.
Abdou Aïssa, nom de guerre Sultan Ould Bady, is a Malian jihadist and drug trafficker. He co-founded the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) with Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou and Ahmed al-Tilemsi, and founded Katibat Salahadin, a katiba within MOJWA that later reformed in the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara after Bady defected.
Mohamed Lemine Ould El Hassen, nom de guerre Abdallah al-Chinguetti, was a Mauritanian jihadist and commander of Katiba Al Furqan of the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Hamada Ag Hama, also known as Abdelkrim Taleb or Abdelkrim al-Targui was a Malian jihadist and emir of Katiba Al Ansar, a brigade in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
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On July 5, 2011, clashes broke out between Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Mauritanian forces in Bassikounou, Mauritania.
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The battle of Areich Hind, also known as the Battle of Raz el-Ma, took place between September 17 and 19, 2010, during the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel. Mauritanian forces launched an offensive against a group of AQIM jihadists in Malian territory on September 17.
On July 22, 2010, French and Mauritanian forces launched a raid on an Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) base in Tombouctou Region, Mali, in an attempt to rescue French hostage Michel Germaneau. The forces were able to destroy the base, but Germaneau was not rescued and later executed by AQIM.
On July 4, 2009, clashes broke out between Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Malian forces near Araouane, Mali.
The Tourine ambush, also known as the Tourine massacre, was one of the September 14, 2008, jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) ambushed Mauritanian soldiers in the village of Tourine, near Zouérat, Mauritania. The ambush was the first major attack by AQIM during the Insurgency in the Sahel, and sparked major changes in the Mauritanian military.
On June 4, 2005, militants from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat attacked a Mauritanian army barracks in Lemgheity, Mauritania. The attack marked the first incursion into Mauritanian territory by the GSPC, and the group's first attack outside of Algerian borders.