| Raid on Tabankort | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mali War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 France |  al-Mourabitoun | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Ahmed al-Tilemsi † | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 7 killed 3 captured | ||||||
Between December 10 and 11, 2014, French forces ambushed militants from al-Mourabitoun near Tabankort, Gao Region, Mali. The ambush led to the death of Ahmed al-Tilemsi, the founder of MOJWA and a key figure in al-Mourabitoun.
Following "opportunity intelligence" received by the French army, French forces conducted an operation against a group of jihadists suspected to be active in the locality of Tabankort. [1] [2] The Malian Ministry of Defense stated that French and Malian forces were carrying out a joint operation in the area, but France claimed that Malian forces did not participate; only intelligence and local authorities. [3] The raid began at dawn, with French special forces ambushing a camp where around fifteen jihadists were gathered. The jihadists tried to fight back, but all were subdued. [3] [4]
The Malian Ministry of Defense stated ten jihadists were killed or captured in the raid, with a follow-up statement detailing seven killed and three captured. [5] [6] Among the dead was Ahmed al-Tilemsi, the emir of MOJWA and a senior figure in al-Mourabitoun. [7] The French did not report any losses. [5]
Al-Mourabitoun confirmed Tilemsi's death along with six other fighters in a message given to Mauritanian news agency Alakhbar on January 6, 2015. [8]
On March 23 2013, a battle took place in Gao between MUJAO and Malian army. The Malian army repelled the attack.
The Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP), formerly known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), is an Islamist militant group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism. IS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun. The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, to the Islamic State. From March 2019 to 2022, IS-GS was formally part of the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP); when it was also called "ISWAP-Greater Sahara". In March 2022, IS declared the province autonomous, separating it from its West Africa Province and naming it Islamic State – Sahil Province (ISSP).
Ahmed al-Tilemsi, nom de guerre of Abderrahmane Ould El Amar was a Malian jihadist leader and drug trafficker who served as a founding member and senior figure of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and a senior figure and alleged emir of al-Mourabitoun.
Ba Ag Moussa was a Malian militant and jihadist.
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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).
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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.
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.
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