Northern Mali car bomb kills at least 4
2013-02-27 07:50
Gao - A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle
into a checkpoint in the northern Malian city of Kidal Tuesday, killing at
least four other people, military sources said.
The attack struck a checkpoint manned by Tuareg separatists
supporting the French-led military offensive against Islamist insurgents.
"The suicide attack targeted the checkpoint on the
eastern side of Kidal which is manned by the MNLA [National Movement for the
Liberation of Azawad]," a French military official told AFP in Gao, the
main city in northern Mali.
Several other officials confirmed the blast was an attack
following an initial report that it may have been a controlled explosion of
ammunition seized from the Islamist insurgency.
The Islamic Movement for Azawad (MIA), another armed group,
said its own fighters were also on duty at the targeted checkpoint and up to
six of them might have been killed in the blast.
"An explosion at a military roadblock held by the MIA
has left four to six dead in our ranks," Alghabass Ag Intalla, whose group
is a moderate splinter of the al-Qaeda-allied Ansar Dine group, told AFP.
"Suicide attackers did this. They are against us and
against the French," he said.
A local government official speaking on condition of
anonymity said the attack occurred on the road leading to Menaka and confirmed
the death toll.
"There were at least four victims... Everybody is
afraid here in Kidal. The car bomb came from the centre of Kidal. That's scary,
we don't know how many other car bombs are waiting in there," he said.
Kidal lies close to 1 000km northeast of the Malian capital
Bamako and the nearby Ifogha mountains has been a key hideout for al-Qaeda-linked fighters, who were forced out of cities in the weeks following
France's January 11 intervention.
Overwhelmed by the superior fire-power of the French air
force and special forces, Islamist hardliners have pulled out of the towns they
ruthlessly ruled for nine months, imposing an extreme form of sharia.
They regrouped and reverted to guerrilla tactics, launching
hit-and-run attacks against French or pro-government forces and resorting to
suicide attacks.
- SAPA
