Niger car bombings on May 23, 2013. The operation was claimed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa based in northern Mali., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Thu May 23, 2013 5:3PM GMT
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A Malian group known as Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) has claimed responsibility for twin car bombings that killed more than two dozen people in northwest Niger.
MUJAO spokesman Abu Walid Sahraoui said his group carried out Thursday’s retaliatory attacks to punish Niger's military cooperation with France in the ongoing war in Mali.
“We attacked France and Niger because of its co-operation with France, in the war against Sharia,” Sahraoui added.
Car bombings struck a military camp and a French-run uranium mine in Nigerien towns of Agadez and Arlit, killing at least 26people including 20 soldiers.
These are the first such attacks in Niger since the country helped France as part of a West African force to battle fighters in neighboring Mali.
France launched the war on January 11, under the pretext of halting the advance of rebel fighters in the country. The war has caused a serious humanitarian crisis in northern areas of Mali and has displaced thousands of people who now live in deplorable conditions.
France’s Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reaffirmed in April that the country would keep 1,000 troops in Mali even after the arrival of thousands of UN peacekeepers later this year.
Uranium mine, military barracks attacked by suicide bombers in Niger
By Abdoulaye Massalatchi, Reuters
NIAMEY, Niger - Suicide bombers struck a mine run by French nuclear group Areva and a military barracks in Niger on Thursday, killing and wounding several people in separate attacks that underline the widening threat posed by Islamist militants across West Africa.
Military sources said several soldiers were killed in a gun battle with Islamists following a car bomb attack at the barracks in Agadez, the largest town in northern Niger.
Areva said at least 13 members of staff were wounded in another bomb attack at about the same time at the Somair uranium mine it operates in the town of Arlit, in Niger's desert north.
A spokesman for the Niger government, Morou Amadou, said the attacks were by Islamist militants, probably from al Qaeda's north Africa wing, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) or its spin-off West African group The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which seized control of neighboring north Mali last year before being ousted by a French-led offensive launched in January.
"These are terrorists who have carried out the suicide attacks in Agadez and Arlit," he said. "The terrorists - I don't know for sure whether it was AQIM or MUJAO - infiltrated these towns and security forces have been deployed and are scouring the area."
The suicide attacks were the first in Niger since the offensive in northern Mali drove Islamist groups there into the vast, empty desert and across borders into neighboring Sahel states.
The Niger army has deployed as part of a West African force in Mali. Islamist suicide bombers have carried out a spate of attacks there in recent months, including one on a Niger army barracks earlier this month.
Military sources in Agadez said a suicide bomber drove a truck through the barrier of the town's military base before dawn on Thursday and detonated his explosives when soldiers opened fire.
"The suicide bomber was not alone: There were other terrorists who followed in cars and there were clashes," said one of the military sources, who said there were several dead on both sides. "The situation is now under control."
A Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said at least 10 people had been killed in the attack.
Areva said in a statement issued in Paris that at least 13 members of staff were wounded in the attack on its Somair mine.
The company said security at the site was being handled by the Niger military, though French sources had recently said Paris planned to send special forces to the area for extra protection.
"The group condemns this odious attack against its staff," Areva said. "We express our solidarity with the government and the people of Niger in this common trial."
Niger's armed forces have taken part in recent weeks in a joint operation against Boko Haram Islamists in the Nigerian town of Baga on the shore of Lake Chad, in which dozens of people were reported killed.
Nigeria, to the south, again asked its neighbor for military aid this week, after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northern states and launched an offensive against Boko Haram insurgents.
Nigeria worries that the four-year-old insurgency based in its remote northeast is being fed from abroad, through Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Belmokhtar's unit participated in Niger suicide attacks
By BILL ROGGIO
May 24, 2013
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the leader of the al Qaeda-linked al Mua'qi'oon Biddam, or the Those Who Sign in Blood Brigade, said that its fighters participated in yesterday's double suicide attack in Niger along with the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). The attack was launched to avenge the death of a senior al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb commander who was killed while fighting in Mali earlier this year, he claimed. The statement also put to rest rumors that Belmokhtar was killed in Mali by French and Chadian forces in early March.
Belmokhtar's statement was posted on jihadist forums on May 23; it was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. The statement was signed by Khalid Abu al Abbas, which is one of Belmokhtar's aliases.
The May 23 suicide attacks, the first of their kind in Niger, targeted a military barracks in Agadez and a uranium mine in Arlit that supplies French reactors. The Agadez attack was executed by a five-man suicide assault team; 18 Nigerien soldiers and a civilian were killed. A MUJAO spokesman claimed credit for the attack.
Belmokhtar said the attacks in Niger were executed to avenge Abdel Hamid Abou Zeid, an AQIM commander who was killed by French and Chadian forces during a military operation to root out the group in northern Mali.
"We send to our dear Ummah a glad tiding of one of the epics of Islam that took place in the heart of the enemy land, and one of the invasions of al Mua'qi'oon Biddam under the name of the martyred commander, as we consider him, Abdel Hamid Abou Zeid," Belmokhtar stated.
Belmokhtar said that "a battalion from our commandos who gave a pledge of allegiance to die rose to retaliate for him [Abou Zeid], coming from different countries to sign with their blood inside the fortresses of an enemy whose army was one of the foundations of the Crusader campaign on our Muslim land."
The attack was also launched as "the first of our response to the statement of the President of Niger - from his masters in Paris - that he eliminated jihad and the mujahideen militarily."
Warning that "more operations" are being prepared, Belmokhtar said, "We will move the battle to the inside of his country [Niger] if he doesn't withdraw his mercenary army" from Mali. Belmokhtar also warned other countries who plan to provide "peacekeepers" in Mali that they will "taste the heat of death and wounds in [their] homelands and among [their] soldiers."
"The convoys of martyrdom-seekers and commandos are ready and waiting for their targets and permission," Belmokhtar concluded.
The al Mua'qi'oon Biddam fights throughout West Africa. In January, just after French forces invaded Mali to eject AQIM, MUJAO, and Ansar Dine from the north, Belmokhtar launched a large-scale suicide assault against the In Amenas gas facility in southeastern Algeria. More than 40 fighters carried out the attack. One of the assault teams was led by a Nigerien known as Abdul Rahman al Nigeri, who had led another assault on a military barracks in Mauritania in 2005. Belmokhtar claimed the attack in the name of al Qaeda.
Although Belmokhtar was reported to have been killed at the same time Abou Zeid was killed, the reports were never confirmed. The president of Chad insisted that Belmokhtar was dead, but the French, who were adamant that Abu Zeid was killed, refused to speculate about the status of Belmokhtar. In early April, Hamad el Khairy, the head of MUJAO, claimed that Belmokhtar was alive.
Although Belmokhtar split with AQIM in December 2012, he still conducts joint operations with the group as well as with MUJAO. Belmokhtar reports directly to al Qaeda's central leadership, according to his spokesman. Al Qaeda central tightened its control over AQIM's hostage operations in late 2010.
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/05/belmokhtars_unit_par.php#ixzz2UBtI9c70
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