The jihadist group claims its fighters have targeted the town’s airport and claimed responsibility for the deaths of “dozens of Wagnerians” and Malian soldiers.
Saturday’s “complex” attacks on several targets in the central Malian town of Sevare were claimed by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM).
“A squadron of martyrs and the Inghimassi stormed the Sevare airport, where two car bombs hit the target, destroying part of the airport and surrounding barracks.The Inghimassi managed to enter the airport and the fighting lasted for two hours,” the Sahel branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said in a statement broadcast on its propaganda channel Al-Zallaqa on Tuesday 25 April.
It added that the attackers had killed “dozens of Wagner mercenaries” and elements of the Malian army.
The jihadist group accused the Malian army of killing civilians in a drone strike.
On the day of the attack, the transitional government said the army had repelled the attackers, neutralising 28 of them.
“In the course of the incident, the explosion that caused the collapse of some houses left 10 dead and 61 injured, all civilians,” the official statement added.
But the GSIM claims it had lost only 15 fighters.
These attacks, which are not the first against the town of Sevare, targeted in 2018 and June 2022, have the distinction of occurring at a time when the Malian army is strengthening its air defenses in the fight against the insurgents.
The insurgents admit in their statement that they had targeted the airport in Sevare, leading several experts to say that this is in line with their plan to reduce the capability of the air defense unit of the Malian army (FAMa).
AC/lb/as/APA