BAMAKO (Reuters) -Mali’s government said on Sunday it had killed a senior Tuareg rebel commander and other rebels in a drone strike on a town in the north of the country.
A Reuters journalist in Tinzaouaten on the border with Algeria witnessed the strike on the town, which is under the control of a rebel coalition known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defence of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA).
“Several CSP cadres were killed, including the notorious Fahad Ag Almahmoud,” Chodi Ag, a mission manager at Mali’s communications ministry, said on Facebook. Almahmoud, a commander widely known as Gatia, is a former member of a pro-government militia who defected to the separatists last year.
A military source who did not wish to be identified said strikes on Tinzaouaten had killed Almahmoud and other “terrorist leaders”.
The army has not officially commented on the attack.
(Reporting by Abdollah Ag Mohamed, Tiemoko Diallo and Fadimata Kontao Writing by Sofia ChristensenEditing by Bernadette Baum and Peter Graff)
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