Al-Qaeda branch calls for holy war
2013-02-12 17:28
Gao - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) has called
for jihad in Mali, a monitoring group said on Tuesday, after four days of
suicide attacks and guerrilla fighting in territory French-led forces reclaimed
from Islamist rebels.
The call to holy war from Aqap, the global network's
Yemen-based branch - which US officials have labelled al-Qaeda's most dangerous
franchise - came as troops sought to tighten a security lock-down in Gao, the
largest city in northern Mali and the target of a string of Islamist attacks.
Aqap condemned France's month-old military intervention
against Islamist groups in the partially desert nation as a "crusader
campaign against Islam", and called on Muslims everywhere to join the
fight against it, the Site Intelligence agency said.
"Supporting the Muslims in Mali is a duty for every
capable Muslim with life and money, everyone according to their ability,"
Aqap's Sharia Committee said in a statement reported by US-based Site, which
monitors extremist internet forums.
It said jihad is "more obligatory on the people who
are closer" to the fight and that "helping the disbelievers against
Muslims in any form is apostasy".
The statements were an apparent reference to north
African countries, notably Algeria, where Islamist gunmen attacked a gas field
after the government agreed to let French warplanes use Algerian airspace,
unleashing a hostage crisis that left 37 foreigners dead.
France launched its operation in Mali on 11 January,
after the interim government requested help against Islamist insurgents who had
seized the north for 10 months and were advancing into southern territory.
Paris sent in fighter jets, attack helicopters and 4 000
troops, racking up a string of early successes as French and African soldiers
drove the extremists from Gao, Timbuktu and the rest of the towns under their
control.
But the Islamists have now started a campaign of suicide
attacks, landmine explosions and guerrilla fighting - a troubling turn for
France, which is eager to wind down the operation in its former colony and hand
over to UN peacekeepers.
Patrols
Troops from Mali and Niger patrolled the streets of Gao on
Tuesday making periodic arrests, after four days of violence that began with
back-to-back suicide bombings and an attack on the city centre by fighters from
the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao).
Malian Defence Minister Yamoussa Camara said three
Islamists had been killed in the fighting on Sunday and 11 captured.
Three Malian soldiers were slightly wounded, he said.
Except for the heavy patrols, central Gao was nearly
deserted on Tuesday.
"People are afraid because of the security situation
and because we're making arrests," said a Malian officer.
Security forces continue to discover stockpiles of explosives
and ammunition throughout Gao every day, a Malian military source said.
The rebels staged Sunday's attack from Gao's central
police station.
The next day a French attack helicopter destroyed the
building in a pre-dawn assault that left body parts and unexploded grenades
strewn across the debris.
One witness said an Islamist fighter inside the police
station had blown himself up.
Child soldiers
Paris announced last week it would begin bringing its
troops home in March.
It wants some 8 000 African troops slowly being deployed
to be incorporated into a UN peacekeeping mission.
But UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said on Monday
"there is still hesitation from the government of Mali”.
In any case, he added, the situation on the ground would
first have to be more stable and any UN peacekeeping force there would require
a UN resolution.
Mali imploded after a 22 March coup by soldiers who
blamed the government for the army's humiliation at the hands of north African
Tuareg rebels, who have long complained of being marginalised by Bamako.
With the capital in disarray, al-Qaeda-linked fighters
hijacked the Tuareg rebellion and took control of the north.
The head of the UN Children's Fund in Mali told AFP that
armed groups in the north have recruited hundreds of children into their ranks.
"We need to be ready to take care of a lot of
children" involved in the conflict, Unicef's Francoise Ackermans warned.
