Return of the Islamists
That didn't take long, did it? As soon as the French military and the several thousand African troops that joined them in routing the Islamic radicals - comprised of Ansar Dine, The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb militias - from Timbuktu, Goa and Kidal in northern Mali, retreating in victory, back came black-robed Islamists with their extremist vision of a global Caliphate.Armed with AK-47 automatic rifles they returned to launch a surprise attack on Gao with its population of 90,000, two weeks after the withdrawal of the French troops, leaving protection of the city to the Malian army. Combat took place in downtown Gao and continued into the night, with the sounds of gunfire eventually giving way to French military helicopters clattering above. The Islamists are not prepared to abandon their plan to establish themselves permanently in northern Mali.
Families hid in their homes as the jihadists fought the Malian army in the narrow streets of central Gao, and up on rooftops, sniping at the military. These are hardened fighters, skilled in combat and well armed, forecasting what is to com; a protracted campaign to restore their ownership of the vast tract of Saharan geography for their own, where Sharia is to be permanently installed, and spread further afield as the territory increasingly succumbs to their control.
These are not the skirmishes which have taken place between the Islamists and the Malian army that have taken place on the outskirts of Goa, since the Islamists were routed by the French. This represented a successful entry of the armed terrorists into the centre of the strategic city to which not all its residents have yet returned after having fled the stifling, frightening atmosphere of Sharia with its public floggings and punishing amputations.
The Islamists left their strategic retreats dug into desert hideouts to resume challenging the government of Mali. Crossing the Niger River to penetrate Gao, they took the less determined, poorly trained and inadequately armed Malian troops by surprise. Islamist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar who had been gratified at taking possession of looted Libyan weaponry has taken credit for the Algerian In Amenas gas refinery attack.
And he had been present in Gao earlier, staying in a two-story house the militants took possession of last year when they captured Gao, maintaining this one in particular, a luxurious accommodation, for the comfort of their commanders. There were other, more fundamental houses that were commissioned from their rightful owners that the militants assumed for themselves.
Several suicide bombers had exploded themselves on the outskirts of Gao before the latest invasion of the central area. "I am really afraid. You hear about these kinds of things in Pakistan or Afghanistan", a 30-year old resident of Gao, astride a motorcycle said, at the scene of the two suicide bombings. "Gao is becoming like Pakistan."
Labels: Africa, Algeria, Conflict, France, Islamism, Mali, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Monday, February 11, 2013
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