Mali on edge after suicide attack
2013-02-09 22:34
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Mali
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Gao, Mali - Malian troops bolstered security at army checkpoints and
villagers detained two youths allegedly strapped with explosives on Saturday
after Islamists claimed responsibility for the country's first suicide attack.
Residents of a village near Gao, the largest city in the north, detained two
youths they said were wearing explosive-rigged belts and travelling on the same
road where the suicide bombing on Friday wounded a soldier at a checkpoint.
"We arrested two young men early this morning. They had explosive belts
and they were riding on two donkeys," Oumar Maiga, the son of the local
village chief, told AFP.
He said the pair, an Arab and a Tuareg, were detained some 20 kilometres north
of Gao.
Soldiers and paramilitary police guarding checkpoints in Gao cut down trees
to increase visibility, dragged sandbags in front of their positions and set up
heavy machine guns in an effort to protect themselves from attacks.
In Friday's blast, a young Tuareg dressed as a paramilitary officer rode a
motorcycle up to a checkpoint and detonated an explosive belt, but failed to
detonate a larger bomb he was carrying, an officer said.
The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) claimed the attack
and vowed to carry out more against "the Malian soldiers who chose the
side of the miscreants, the enemies of Islam".
Mujao is one of a trio of Islamist groups that occupied northern Mali for 10
months before France sent in fighter jets, attack helicopters and 4 000 troops
to drive them out.
The French-led operation, launched on January 11 as the insurgents advanced
toward the capital Bamako, has succeeded in forcing the Islamists from the
towns under their control.
But they are thought to retain a presence in the vast desert spaces of the
country's north, and France is now anxious to hand over the operation to United
Nations peacekeepers amid fears of a prolonged insurgency.
Two Malian soldiers and four civilians have already been killed by
landmines, and French troops are still fighting off what Paris called
"residual jihadists" in reclaimed territory.
Some villages around Gao, 1,200 kilometres northeast of Bamako, continue to
support the Islamists, French and Malian security sources say.
"As soon as you go more than a few kilometres outside Gao, it's
dangerous," a Malian officer told AFP.
Despite the success of the French operation, Mali's state and military
remain weak and divided, a situation highlighted by a gunfight Friday in Bamako
between rival army troops.
