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WAR REPORT
Clashes erupt in Timbuktu, 2 jihadists killed: Mali army
by Staff Writers
Bamako (AFP) March 31, 2013


French troops hand over weapons seized from Mali rebels
Gao, Mali (AFP) March 30, 2013 - French forces in Mali on Saturday began handing over to government troops seven tonnes of weapons seized from former jihadist bases in the northeastern Ifoghas mountains.

The Mali army took delivery of a first batch of around three tonnes in the main French military base in Gao, the largest city in the northern half of the country which Islamist groups occupied for nine months.

"Only 15 to 20 percent of what has been found is being handed over and can be safely reused," a lieutenant-colonel from France's engineering corps told AFP in Gao.

"The rest is destroyed on the spot to avoid exposing the civilian population to accidents," he said.

According to French military sources, a total of seven tonnes of weapons recovered from caches during operations by French and Chadian forces in recent weeks will be handed back to Mali.

France launched a surprise military intervention on January 11 to help the Malin government wrest the north of the country back from Al Qaeda-linked groups that had controlled it since April 2012.

Jihadist groups quickly pulled out of the main cities in the north and regrouped in their remote mountain bastions near the Algerian border.

Rebels took over Mali's northern half virtually unopposed a year ago, seizing Malian army bases and equipment in the process.

The demise of Libya's Moamer Kadhafi in late 2011 had also scattered his considerable arsenal across the restive Sahel region.

French military sources said most of the equipment handed over on Saturday consists of ammunition, mortar shells, grenades and rockets looted from Malian army bases.

Malian troops backed by French forces on Sunday clashed with Islamist fighters who had infiltrated the northern city of Timbuktu, leaving two jihadists dead and four Malian soldiers wounded, an army officer said.

"Jihadists have infiltrated the centre of Timbuktu... Our men are currently fighting them with the support of a unit of our French partners," the Malian officer told AFP by telephone.

"Two jihadists have been killed and four Malian soldiers have been injured. That's the provisional toll," the officer said, adding the fighting "is not yet over".

The Islamist fighters who had controlled the fabled Saharan city before French and Malian soldiers recaptured it in January have been able to blend into the population to launch attacks, infiltrating it by foot or bicycle.

The officer said fighting began when the Islamist rebels opened fire on two sides of the centre of the city, targeting a hotel serving as the temporary residence for the region's governor as well as a Malian military base.

A Malian security source said the governor and two foreign journalists had been among the people evacuated from the targeted hotel.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber blew himself up when he tried to force his way through a military barricade at the western entrance to Timbuktu, wounding a soldier manning the checkpoint.

Mali has been the target of a series of attacks claimed by Islamist insurgents since France launched a military intervention in January against Al-Qaeda-linked groups that had seized the north of the country.

The French-led operation has forced the extremists from the cities they seized in the chaotic aftermath of Mali's military coup in March 2012.

But French and African forces have faced continuing suicide blasts and guerrilla attacks in reclaimed territory.

On March 21, a suicide bomber blew up a car near the Timbuktu airport, launching an overnight assault on the city.

The blast killed one Malian soldier. Around 10 Islamist fighters were killed in the ensuing fighting with French and Malian forces, a French army spokesman said.

The attack was claimed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of three Islamist groups that had seized the north.

MUJAO said it had "opened a new front in Timbuktu", which had not come under attack since French-led forces entered the city on January 28 -- unlike Gao, which has been hit by a string of suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks.

A landmine blast killed two Malian soldiers near Gao on Saturday.

The same day, Mali's interim leader Dioncounda Traore appointed Mohamed Salia Sokona -- a former government minister and retired ambassador -- to head a new commission tasked with fostering reconciliation in the conflict-torn west African nation.

Aside from its chairman and two vice-chairmen -- who were also named -- the commission will have another 30 members.

France's Defence Minister Laurent Fabius, who is due to visit Bamako on April 5, on Sunday welcomed the first appointments made to the Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission (DRC), calling it "an important step toward political reconciliation".

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