Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Attack on U.N. Base in Mali | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55347331
Caption:

Malian soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint at the entrance to Timbuktu, Mali, after unknown assailants attacked and withdrew from inside a U.N. police base in the city, February 5, 2016. REUTERS/Moulaye Chirfi


Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Attack on U.N. Base in Mali

by | Feb 6, 2016 | World |

Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Attack on U.N. Base in Mali
Malian soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint at the entrance to Timbuktu, Mali, after unknown assailants attacked and withdrew from inside a U.N. police base in the city, February 5, 2016. REUTERS/Moulaye Chirfi

Malian soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint at the entrance to Timbuktu, Mali, after unknown assailants attacked and withdrew from inside a U.N. police base in the city, February 5, 2016. REUTERS/Moulaye Chirfi

Al Qaeda in Maghreb has claimed responsibility on Saturday for a deadly attack on a U.N. police base in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu, in a statement monitored by the SITE Intelligence group on Saturday.

After an operation that lasted for hours, Malian troops supported by U.N. helicopters recaptured the base after it was taken on Friday.

The attackers drove up to the entrance of the UN base in the former Hotel Palmeraie at around 6:30am local time and then blew up their vehicle, according to Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). A checkpoint in the city operated by Mali’s army was simultaneously attacked by gunmen.

The morning assault came on the heels of recent attacks on foreign entities that left 20 dead in a raid on a hotel in Mali’s capital in November and 30 in an attack in the capital of Burkina Faso last month.