47 Killed as Former Libyan Mercs Fight Mali Military
Tuareg Spokesman Rejects Claim of Major Military Victory
The Malian military is reporting that at least 47 people were killed today, including 45 rebels, as fighting between troops and ethnic Tuareg fighters in the far north continued. They claimed a major victory in the fight, with many rebels wounded.
The rebel faction, which calls itself the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA), is a Tuareg movement seeking to create an autonomous region in Mali’s far north. The group has attacked several towns in the area.
NMLA has gotten a considerable boost in recent months as a large number of Tuareg fighters who had been hired as mercenaries for the recent civil war in Libya have returned home and brought their weapons with them.
NMLA spokesmen rejected the claims of a loss to the military, saying fighting continued and that there were a lot more Malian soldiers killed than the military’s figures would indicate.
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David Wooten
January 19th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Mali. Now there's a place worth invading – so we can give the warmongers and neocons a one-way ticket to Timbuktu.
skulz fontaine
January 19th, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Hmmm, "humanitarian intervention" seems to have a cancerous spreading effect.
Robert
January 19th, 2012 at 10:02 pm
I wonder how much oil is underneath the ground?
گربه سياه
January 20th, 2012 at 8:55 am
Tauregs are Moors, this is just another example of Islam extremists
trying to purge northern Africa of Christian influence.
Lawrence Cutter
January 20th, 2012 at 10:45 am
"Libyan Mercs"
———————
There are 100,000 Libyan Tuareg citizens. The Libyan Tuaregs and a few of their cousins from across the boarder remained loyal to Libya while Libya was being destroyed by the Imperial/NATO aggression. They, like the Libyan Army, were (and are) fighting without pay to save Libya from what has happened and is happening to Libya.
There were, however, many thousands of mercenaries fighting for the Empire in Libya, including 5,000 Qatarans and many French, British and US "contractors". Hush on that, ey?
The nefarious lie about black African mercenaries was one of the two damnable lies told and gleefully accepted without question by the US exceptionalists to justify this evil aggression against another small, defenseless nation. The other lie being that Qaddafi was slaughtering his "own people".
The damnable lie about black African mercenaries in Libya was used not only to justify the unjustifiable aggression against and destruction of Libya, but also to excuse and cover up the murder and ongoing ethnic cleansing of thousands of black Libyans.
Lawrence Cutter
January 20th, 2012 at 10:45 am
Now, with Libya destroyed and in total turmoil, thousands of US storm troopers are moving into the Libyan oil fields and preparing their prime jump off point for further attacks against Africa.
The Tuaregs and many other Africans have been awakened by the sounds of Imperial bombs and the Emperor is in a mad rush now to position his storm troopers all over the continent.
If the Empire can keep its own ignorant exceptionalist citizens cheering for the blood of "funny little foreigners" ("Libyan Mercs" being a "nice" established BS bullet point) they won't notice as their own throats are being cut to pay for this grand attempt at world conquest.