N’DJAMENA (Reuters) – Chadian troops attacked an Islamist base in northern Mali yesterday in heavy fighting which France called part of the final campaign to drive al Qaeda from its mountain hideouts.
Thirteen Chadian soldiers and 65 al Qaeda-linked rebels were killed on Friday in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains near the Algerian border, where French special forces are also hunting Islamist bases, Chadian military sources said.
A senior Chadian military source said yesterday his country’s heaviest losses during the international offensive in Mali centred around a rebel base that appeared to be of “significant importance” as the militants were not fleeing.
The violence underscores the risk French and African forces become entangled in guerrilla war as they help Mali’s weak army.
French troops were also fighting in the Adrar area, French President Francois Hollande told a news conference, in what he called a “last phase” of the campaign begun when Paris sent troops to Mali last month to stop a southward push by Islamist rebels who seized control of the north last April.
“These battles will continue,” Hollande said yesterday. “It is the last phase because it is most likely that AQIM’s (al-Qaeda’s north African arm) forces are hiding there.”
Troops from neighbouring African nations – including 2,000 Chadians – have deployed to Mali and are meant to take over leadership of the operation when France begins to withdraw forces from its former West African colony next month.
Five people, including two Islamists, were also killed in In Khalil – a town bordering Algeria 1,700 km (1,000 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako – on Friday in car bomb attacks on Tuareg MNLA rebels with French links, an MNLA spokesman said.
