Mali troops fire shots at Islamist fighters
2013-01-08 12:28
Bamako - Malian soldiers fired warning shots at Islamist
fighters overnight amid fears that they are planning to advance on the
government-controlled south of the impoverished country, a military source said
on Tuesday.
The fighters retreated after the firing near the town of Kona
in the central Mopti region, the source told AFP.
Security sources and witnesses have said that three Islamist
rebel groups had set up a military base in Bambara Maoude, a town near
Timbuktu.
The three groups - the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine, the
Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) and al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) - took control of the north in the wake of a coup last
March.
Ansar Dine, which insists on strict observance of sharia
law, said Thursday that it had revoked a pledge to end hostilities, accusing
the government of giving nothing in return.
The security sources said members of Boko Haram, the
Islamist extremist movement blamed for thousands of deaths in northern Nigeria,
had joined the rebels in Bambar Maoude.
Ansar Dine and another armed group in the north, the Azawad
National Liberation Movement (MNLA), are homegrown movements, while the others
have infiltrated the vast territory the size of France from the outside.
A regional security source said he was "very
worried" that the rebels were planning to advance on the south.
A Malian government official said defence ministry officials
would meet on Tuesday.
African nations have 3 300 troops on standby for a mission
to reclaim northern Mali.
