
Morocco ex-football club chair denies seizing villa in drug case
CASABLANCA: The former president of Morocco's most successful football club maintained in court Friday that he legally acquired a villa he is accused of seizing from a convicted Malian drug trafficker dubbed the 'Escobar of the Sahara.'
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Saudi Gazette
3 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Al-Qaeda linked group says it carried out huge attack on Mali's army
BAMAKO — An al-Qaeda-linked group says it carried out a major attack on the Malian town of Boulikessi and the seizure of an army base there. More than 30 soldiers were killed in Sunday's attack, according to sources quoted by the news agency Reuters, however that figure has not been confirmed by the authorities. On Monday the same group, Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), said it targeted the military in the historic city of Timbuktu, with residents reporting hearing gunfire and explosions. Mali's army said in a statement late on Monday that it had repelled an "infiltration attempt by terrorist fighters" in Timbuktu, "neutralizing" 14 militants and arresting 31 suspects. It added that weapons, vehicles and other items were seized, but did not name the group responsible for the attack. The army said search operations across Timbuktu were ongoing. In an earlier statement, the army said it "reacted vigorously" to Sunday's attack, before "withdrawing" — suggesting a tactical retreat."Many men fought, some until their last breath, to defend the Malian nation," the statement unnamed local source told Reuters that JNIM had left many casualties and "cleared the camp".Unverified video footage showed dozens of militants storming the base, including one which captured them stepping on bodies, according to Monday's attack, JNIM said its fighters had attacked a military airport and Russian and security sources told the AFP news agency they were "fighting back", but that the militants were "everywhere in the city".A local official said the attackers had arrived "with a vehicle packed with explosives" that detonated close to the army a UN World Heritage Site, was captured by Islamist militants in 2012 before they were driven out, but has once more been under siege in recent attacks, the latest sign of collapsing security in Mali and the wider Sahel region, came after the United States Africa Command warned about growing efforts by various different Islamist militant groups which operate in the Sahel to gain access to West Africa's a press conference on Friday, the commander of United States Africa Command (Africom), Gen Michael Langley, described recent attacks in Nigeria, the wider Sahel, and the Lake Chad Basin as deeply troubling, warning that the groups' access to the coast would significantly boost their capacity for smuggling and arms is thought that more than 400 soldiers have been killed by militants since the beginning of last month in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Reuters reports. — BBC


Arab News
02-05-2025
- Arab News
France mosque murder suspect had indiscriminate ‘urge to kill': prosecutor
Prosecutor Cecile Gensac said the suspect Olivier Hadzovic had been 'driven by a fierce desire to kill someone and failing that, to commit suicide'He told someone online he would 'do it in the street,' before considering attacking the mosqueLA GRAND-COMBE, France: A French man accused of stabbing a 22-year-old Malian to death in a mosque appears to have acted alone on an obsessive 'urge to kill,' a prosecutor said killing of Aboubakar Cisse in La Grand-Combe on Friday last week prompted President Emmanuel Macron to insist there was no place for religious hate in French society.A French national of Bosnian origin suspected of stabbing Cisse 57 times and then filming his victim writhing in agony surrendered to police in Italy and is awaiting extradition to Gensac, prosecutor for the nearby southern city of Nimes, said the 20-year-old suspect, named as Olivier Hadzovic, had been 'driven by a fierce desire to kill someone and failing that, to commit suicide.'He told someone online he would 'do it in the street,' before considering attacking the mosque. Once inside, he wrote: 'He's black. I'm going to do it.'He seemed to have 'profoundly personal motives,' and the crime was not being treated as 'terrorist' as not linked to an 'ideological claim,' Gensac some 700 people prayed for Cisse at a funeral at the same mosque where he was a helper. Worshippers prayed in front of the coffin covered by a green who arrived in France as a teenager without papers, was originally from Yaguine in southwestern Mali, where he is due to be buried at a later date.'This is an absolutely incredible act of hatred in a very peaceful place,' Dominique Sopo, a representative of campaign group SOS Racisme, told more prayed for the victim at a town just outside Paris.'With the lack of support in the media and from politicians, we're really sad and we're really scared,' said Abdelghani Bentrari, in charge of the mosque in the town of has the largest Muslim community in the European Union, and the murder has put Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a hard-line right-winger with a tough stance on immigration, under particular has not visited the scene of the killing in La Grand-Combe and has been criticized for not finding time to meet Cisse's to CNews, a broadcaster accused of fostering far-right views, Retailleau this week said it was 'difficult' to find Cisse's family because he was in France without a residence lawmakers on Tuesday observed a minute's silence to honor Cisse and some lawmakers met with his to a source close to the case, Retailleau will meet Cisse's family in Paris on Monday, when his coffin will be in the capital for another nicknamed 'Bouba,' was born in Mali in crossed the Mediterranean and arrived in the Paris region in 2018, his uncle told AFP. He traveled to the south of France in 2019 because 'he did not want to be a burden' for Grand Combe, residents remembered him as a quiet young man who helped clean the mosque and sometimes brought pizza to share despite having little prosecutor said the suspect came from a family of non-practicing Christians with 11 children. He was 'very, very often' on social media, where he had watched violent videos, including of people cutting the video made just after the stabbing, the killer congratulated himself, saying 'I did it' and insulted 'Allah.'A witness said that the suspect had described himself as 'schizophrenic' after the murder.A man identified as the suspect's father told broadcaster BFMTV on Friday his son was 'crazy' and apologized to Cisse's Battikh, a lawyer representing the victim's family, said earlier the murder should be reclassified as 'a terrorist attack.''The Muslim community must be treated in the same way as any other citizens,' he said.


Arab News
18-04-2025
- Arab News
Morocco ex-football club chair denies seizing villa in drug case
CASABLANCA: The former president of Morocco's most successful football club maintained in court Friday that he legally acquired a villa he is accused of seizing from a convicted Malian drug trafficker dubbed the 'Escobar of the Sahara.' For the latest updates, follow us @ArabNewsSport