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Rebels attack more towns in northern Mali

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:12 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

A man from the Songhai tribe walks along the border of the the Sahara desert in Forgho, northern Mali, in this 2003 file photo. REUTERS/Yves Herman

* Tuareg fighters pursue attacks for second day

* Rebels says seeking to "cleanse territory of occupiers"

* Mali army calls in reinforcements, some defections (Adds Tuareg spokesman comment, details)

By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Nomadic Tuareg rebels backed by former soldiers from Libya stepped up attacks on towns in northern Mali on Wednesday, ending a fragile peace that had held between the separatists and the government since 2009.

Up to 500 armed Tuaregs who fought for ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sought refuge in Mali late last year as his rule crumbled, raising concerns that their presence would reignite uprisings in the Sarahan desert.

Fighters launched attacks around the northern towns of Aguelhok and Tessalit by the border with Algeria early on Wednesday, a day after rebels tried to seize the town of Menaka, prompting fierce clashes with Malian government forces who used combat helicopters to push them back.

A spokesman for the Tuareg rebel group MNLA said its fighters, armed with AK-47s and heavy weapons, attacked military targets in the towns in assaults that would continue until the Tuareg homeland of Azawad was granted independence.

"Until this objective is reached, we will continue efforts to cleanse the territory of its Malian occupiers," Moussa Ag Acharatoumane told Reuters by telephone, adding the assault was a response to a Malian military deployment in the zone.

He said that the MNLA, or the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, had a fighting force of about 1,000 men, including about 100 ex-combattants from Libya, and had taken control of Aguelhok by Wednesday afternoon. A resident in Aguelhok told Reuters fighting was ongoing.

A resident in Tessalit told Reuters the rebels there had been pushed back by the army into the surrounding hills following heavy clashes that shook houses. Several charred vehicles were seen on the road to the airport.

SPILLOVER FEARED

A military official said the Tuareg fighters repelled from Menaka on Tuesday had moved north and attacked Aguelhok before sunrise, and that a separate group had headed further north towards the town of Tessalit.

At least one soldier was killed and several others wounded in the fighting in Tessalit, a military source said, a day after the government said a Malian soldier and several assailants were killed in the fighting around Menaka.

Northern Mali, a remote desert zone 1,000 km (630 miles) up the winding Niger river from the capital Bamako, has a long history of uprisings by nomadic rebels who pay scant attention to state boundaries with Niger, Algeria and Libya.

Gaddafi encouraged their aspirations to an independent Saharan identity, both fostering and then helping to quash their rebellions. Their last uprising formally ended with a peace deal with the Mali government in 2009.

The MNLA's Ag Acharatoumane said the group had no plans to attack towns beyond Mali's borders. "This stops at the borders of Niger, Algeria, and Burkina Faso," he said.

He said the MNLA had no ties to al Qaeda's North African wing, which has claimed several kidnappings in recent years and is believed to be holding nine Western hostages somewhere in the vast and lawless Sahel zone.

Mali security sources said last year some pro-Gaddafi fighters had set up base 40 km (25 miles) outside the northern town of Kidal, equipped with weapons and 50 off-road vehicles.

Mali's neighbours and partners including the United States and the European Union fear the consequences of a lawless no-go area in Mali's north, already home to allies of al Qaeda behind the spate of kidnappings.

France and the United States both signalled they would offer military support to Mali while the EU promised 63 million euros in aid to Bamako in November, mostly aimed at shoring up security in the northern desert.

Mali has in recent days amassed forces in the region to combat the threat, but the army official said it had called for reinforcements after defections to the rebel side by ethnic Tuareg camel-mounted soldiers at army bases in Kidal and Menaka.

The insecurity has devastated the desert tourism industry in a country which otherwise relies on revenues from its cotton and gold mining industries. (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Adama Diarra in Kidal, and Richard Valdmanis in Dakar; Writing by Mark John Editing by Maria Golovnina)