Latest news with #alQaeda
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The deadly al-Qaeda affiliate terrorising western Africa
When Amadou Traoré was posted to an army base in western Mali, his family could take comfort that the soldier was far away from the jidahists pillaging towns and killing hundreds. The Kayes region, where he was based, had escaped the relentless terrorist attacks that led the US and UN to label Mali and its neighbours the new global epicentre of terrorism. But that reprieve from bloodshed ended this month. Lieut Traoré's family woke to reports of coordinated attacks in seven towns and cities across the region. 'Automatically, I called his wife: 'Have you heard from Amadou?' recalls his father, Ousmane. At the same time, social media began flooding with pictures of destruction unfolding in an area previously considered safe. As his family spent hours calling the army officer's mobile, his phone rang out and later it went straight to voicemail. 'It was the next day that his wife called me to tell me that she had been contacted to say her husband had died,' the retired teacher told The Telegraph. 'And that's how we learned. We learned and in turn, I informed his mother, I informed his brothers.' Ousmane's son was killed by the same al-Qaeda offshoot rampaging across Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. It has become one of the world's deadliest militant groups. Some 850 people have been massacred by Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) across the three countries in May alone, according to data from Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), a US crisis-monitoring group. The surge in attacks has marked one of the deadliest periods in the Sahel's recent history and heightened fears about the stability of the region at a time when its junta regimes are estranged from former Western military allies. After more than a decade of insurgency bloodshed which has caused mass displacement, there are fears the violence is now pushing toward coastal west Africa. Gen Michael Langley, the top US commander in Africa, said reaching the coast was one of the terrorists' new objectives. 'If they secure access to the coastline, they can finance their operations through smuggling, human trafficking, and arms trading,' he said. Mali's government was able to repel JNIMs' attacks on July 1, but the push into the Kayes region has been described by analysts as a key change in the war. At the same time, there has been an apparent shift from rural guerrilla tactics to a campaign aimed at controlling territory around urban centres and asserting political dominance in the Sahel, they said. South-west Mali not only controls access to the nearby Senegal and Mauritania borders, but also contains much of Mali's gold wealth. Ulf Laessing, director of the Sahel programme at German think tank the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said Mali still had a better grip on its south-west than elsewhere, but the new JNIM push could stretch government forces. 'JNIM is trying to establish a presence in south-western Mali near the Senegal border, which has been relatively quiet,' Mr Laessing told The Telegraph. 'The region is strategically important as Mali's main supply route for imports from Dakar passes through Kayes and western Mali. 'I think JNIM is trying to establish a new front, and force the army to move soldiers from the north and centre to the south.' Mali has been in deep crisis since early last decade, when Tuareg separatists and radical Islamist factions took over Timbuktu, Gao and other towns across the north. French military intervention had some early success pushing them back, but Paris soon became bogged down in a difficult counter-insurgency mission marred by strained ties with the government. The violence spread into Niger and Burkina Faso and in 2017 JNIM was founded in a merger of jihadist groups including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). JNIM and its estimated 6,000 to 7,000 fighters has since been the region's strongest militant group and is led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ghaly, the former rebel leader in Mali's Tuareg uprisings in the 1990s, led Ansar Dine, the fundamentalist group, as part of a coalition that briefly occupied northern Mali in 2012. His ambition is thought to be to impose Islamic rule across the Sahel. Military coups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have all capitalised on public anger at the failure to improve security in the face of JNIM's advance. Yet while the incoming juntas have kicked out Western allies, particularly the former colonial power France, and turned to the Kremlin for military support instead, the violence continues to worsen. The juntas and Russian mercenaries are meanwhile accused of turning people against them by conducting atrocities as they try to beat back JNIM's advance. Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, of the International Crisis Group, said: 'The parties are fighting a war of attrition, with jihadist groups expanding in rural areas, and government forces and their Russian allies controlling urban centres.' Meanwhile, JNIM's battlefield tactics are reported to have become increasingly sophisticated, and now include the use of anti-aircraft weapons and drones. The group is also thought to gain hefty revenue from raids, cattle rustling, hijacking of goods, kidnappings and taxes on local communities. It has imposed taxes in areas it controls and imposed a form of Sharia law, requiring women to wear veils and men to grow beards. Mr Traore said that the JNIM attacks that had killed his son showed how powerful the group had become. He predicted only some form of negotiation would be able to stop the violence. He said: 'It will take time and in my opinion, it's negotiations, it's dialogue that we must consider. 'Because we're fed up with this war all the time. Attacks here and there, killings here and there and deaths. Really, we've had enough. We've had enough.'
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa vows to protect Druze as Bedouin fighters launch new offensive
Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority on Thursday after U.S. intervention to help achieve a truce in fighting between government forces and Druze fighters. Syrian Bedouin fighters gather with weapons, as they launch a new offensive in Sweida province against Druze fighters despite a truce. (Reuters) Overnight, the Islamist-led government's troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting Druze fighters against government troops and Bedouin tribes. But in a worrying development, a military commander for the Bedouin said their fighters had launched a new offensive in Sweida province against Druze fighters and that the truce only applied to government forces. The Bedouins, a collection of Sunni Muslim farmers who have long-standing frictions with the Druze, were seeking to free detained colleagues, he told Reuters. A round of fighting between the Bedouins and Druze earlier this week prompted the government to send troops to Sweida to quell the fighting, but the violence then grew until a ceasefire was declared. The violence has underlined the challenges that Sharaa faces in stabilizing Syria and exerting centralised rule, despite his warming ties with the United States and his administration's evolving security contacts with Israel. One local journalist said he had counted more than 60 bodies in the streets of Sweida in south Syria on Thursday morning. Ryan Marouf of Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man. On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze - part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel. Israel, which bombed Syria frequently under the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, has struck the country repeatedly this year, describing its new leaders as barely disguised jihadists and saying it will not allow them to deploy forces in areas of southern Syria near its border. Addressing Syrians on Thursday, interim President Sharaa accused Israel of seeking to "dismantle the unity of our people", saying it had "consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime". Sharaa, commander of an al Qaeda faction before cutting ties with the group in 2016, said protecting Druze citizens and their rights was "our priority" and rejected any attempt to drag them into the hands of an "external party". He also vowed to hold to account those who committed violations against "our Druze people". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarisation of a swathe of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida. He reiterated Israel's policy to protect the Druze. Syria had sent "its army south of Damascus into an area that was supposed to remain demilitarized, and it began massacring Druze. This was something we could not accept in any way", he said, adding: "It is a ceasefire achieved through strength." The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented 193 dead in four days of fighting, among them medical personnel, women and children. FIELD EXECUTIONS The network's head Fadel Abdulghany told Reuters the figure included cases of field executions by both sides, Syrians killed by Israeli strikes and others killed in clashes but that it would take time to break down the figures for each category. A Sweida resident, who asked to be identified only by his first name Amer for fear of reprisals, shared a video of his neighbours slain in their home. It showed a lifeless man in a chair, an elderly man with a gunshot wound to his right temple on the floor and a younger man, face down in a pool of blood. Amid reports of revenge attacks on Bedouin on Thursday, leading Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari called for peaceful Bedouin tribes to be respected and not harmed. One reporter in Sweida this week saw government fighters loot and burn homes, including just before they departed Sweida overnight. Fighters also shaved off the moustaches of Druze men. Moustaches are worn by Druze sheikhs and many other Druze men as a symbol of religious and cultural identity with spiritual significance. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late on Wednesday the United States had engaged all parties and steps had been agreed to end "this troubling and horrifying situation". Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, leader of the Druze in Israel, told Reuters the situation for Druze in Syria was very difficult but he hoped it would calm down. "Israel's response was required - of course," Tarif said. "If they (Israel) hadn't responded there would have been a much worse situation." Tarif said that Druze who entered from Syria yesterday have returned. The Druze in Israel would support normalization between Israel and Syria but Druze in Syria must be respected, protected and given freedom of worship, he added. Sharaa credited U.S., Arab and Turkish mediation for saving "the region from an uncertain fate". He faces challenges to stitch Syria back together in the face of deep misgivings from groups that fear Islamist rule. In March, mass killings of members of the Alawite minority exacerbated the mistrust. Israel's airstrikes on Wednesday blew up part of Syria's defence ministry and hit near the presidential palace as it vowed to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Burkina Faso military ruler abolishes electoral commission
Burkina Faso's military rulers have disbanded the country's electoral commission calling it a waste of money. The interior ministry will handle elections in the future, state-run RTB TV reported. Since seizing power in September 2022, the coup leaders have initiated sweeping reforms, including the postponement of elections which would lead to a return to civilian rule. A nationwide vote was due last year, but the junta extended the period of transition to democracy until July 2029, allowing leader Capt Ibrahim Traoré to remain in power and free to contest the next presidential election. The AFP news agency quotes Territorial Administration Minister Emile Zerbo as saying that the electoral commission was "subsidised" with around $870,000 (£650,000) a year. Abolishing the commission would "reinforce our sovereign control on the electoral process and at the same time limit foreign influences", he added. How an al-Qaeda offshoot became one of Africa's deadliest militant groups Why Burkina Faso's junta leader has captured hearts around the world How 'blood gold' is fuelling conflict in West Africa After coming to power three years ago amid criticism that the civilian authorities were failing to deal with a growing Islamist insurgency, the military leaders have rejected the assistance of former colonial power France in favour of Russia. Rights groups have since accused the army of targeting civilians in its attempt to quash the militants, as well as suppressing political activity and the freedom of expression. There are also question marks over the effectiveness of the military operation. In the first half of 2025, jihadist group JNIM said it had carried out over 280 attacks in Burkina Faso – double the number for the same period in 2024, according to data verified by the BBC. Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring and David Bamford. You may also be interested in: Burkina Faso outcry over 'conscription used to punish junta critics' Capt Ibrahim Traoré: From shy schoolboy to military leader Why France faces so much anger in West Africa Why young Africans are celebrating military takeovers Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica BBC Africa podcasts Focus on Africa This Is Africa
RTÉ News
5 days ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Who are the Druze and why does Israel say it is hitting Syria for their sake?
Violence in Syria pitting the Islamist-led government against members of the Druze community has put a spotlight on the small but influential minority. Straddling Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Druze occupy a special niche in the region's complex politics. . Who are the Druze? The Druze are Arabs who follow a religion derived from a branch of Islam. They maintain a degree of secrecy about the practice of their faith that emerged in the 11th century and incorporates elements from Islam and other philosophies, emphasising monotheism, reincarnation and the pursuit of truth. Some hardline Sunni Muslims deem them heretics. Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, an Islamist who once belonged to al Qaeda, called them part of the Syrian fabric and vowed to protect their rights in a speech today. Where do they live? Syria's Druze are concentrated in the southwest in the Sweida region bordering Jordan and in areas of Quneitra province, near the occupied Golan. They also reside in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana. In Israel, Druze reside primarily in the north and the occupied Golan. In Lebanon, they are concentrated in mountain regions, including Chouf and Aley, and others such as Hasbaya in south Lebanon. How do they fit into regional politics? Though a small minority, the Druze have often played an outsized role in the politics of countries where they live. In Israel, the Druze number 150,000. Unlike Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, many Druze Arabs serve in the Israeli military and police, including during the war in Gaza, and some have reached a high rank, meaning their voices cannot be easily ignored by Israel's political leadership. While most Druze in Israel identify as Israeli citizens, more than 20,000 living in the occupied Golan still identify as Syrians and have close ties to family on the other side of the border. Facing calls from Israeli Druze to help Syrian Druze, Israeli leaders have cited protecting them as a reason for attacking Syria repeatedly this year. Syria's Druze population is estimated to number around one million people. They held some protests against Bashar al-Assad after the eruption of the war in 2011 but there was little conflict between them and Damascus as it focused on trying to crush the uprising in Sunni-majority areas. Since Mr Assad was toppled in December, friction with the Islamist-led authorities has ignited fighting several times. While some Druze leaders have urged accommodation with Damascus, others have come out strongly against Mr Sharaa, notably Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari, who urged resistance to government forces and appealed to world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during this week's violence. Some Druze figures have criticised this approach. Lebanon's Walid Jumblatt, one of the region's most prominent Druze politicians, has rejected the notion that Israel is protecting Syria's Druze. He has warned against calls for international protection and called for Syrian national unity. What is driving Israel's intervention? Israel bombed Syria frequently when Mr Assad was in power, seeking to roll back the influence established by Iran and Iran-backed groups that deployed there to help him fight rebels. Israel has painted the new Syrian government as a jihadist threat, saying it won't allow it to deploy forces into southern Syria. Israel has said it wants to avoid any hostile build-up at its border, whilst also vowing to protect the Druze minority. Israeli troops have also seized Syrian territory adjoining the occupied Golan Heights since December. Speaking today, Mr Sharaa said Israel was promoting division among Syrians, accusing it of seeking to "dismantle the unity of our people", saying it had "consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime".
Telegraph
5 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Telegraph style book: Aa
A a/an: If the H is pronounced, use a: a hotel, a historian; if not, use an: an hour, an heir Aborigine: Note the cap A. Aboriginal should also be capped when referring to native Australian people abdicate, abnegate and abrogate: All have different meanings. Abdicate = renounce high responsibilities; abnegate = deny oneself or others something; abrogate = abolish by official proclamation accents: Use on foreign proper names and words in regular English usage (café, pâté). Avoid in headlines and on capital letters Achilles heel, Achilles tendon: No apostrophe acronym: If pronounced as a word (e.g. Nasa), cap first letter only. If said as letters (e.g. NHS, CPS), use upper case Act (law): Takes a capital letter at every mention actress: The preferred term for a female actor AD: Comes before the year (AD 1066) and after centuries (fourth century AD). Do not use CE Addenbrooke's hospital adrenalin: No 'e' on the end advertisement: Should be shortened to advert, not ad adviser but advisory Afrikaner: The people and culture Afrikaans: The language ageing/ageist: Not aging/agist AI: No full points; no need to spell it out as AI (artificial intelligence) Aids: Initial cap only. Since it is a condition rather than a disease, write 'died of an Aids-related condition', not 'died of Aids' air strike, air base: Not one word A-level: Lower case 'l' alibi: Is not an excuse; it means proof of being elsewhere allelulia: Hallelujah is preferred al-Qaeda alright: Is not correct; use all right alsatian/Alsatian: Lower case for dogs; capital for people alternate: As an adjective means 'every other'; e.g. 'he had maths on alternate days' alternatives: There can only ever be two alternative reality: Not alternate reality among: Used when there is more than person 'The money was shared among the team' see between ancestor: An earlier generation of a family descendant: The opposite of ancestor and/or: Avoid, rewrite instead 'You may bring your passport, your driving licence or both' St Andrews University annex: Verb annexe: Noun anti-Semitism any more/anymore: We do not want any more errors... we will not put up with this anymore apostrophe: Used to indicate the omission of letters and in plural forms of lowercase letters (e.g. dotting the i's) apparatchik apps: No need to describe as 'mobile phone apps'. 'Applications' is too formal archaeology Argentina: Argentine for the citizen and adjective, not Argentinian Argyle: Knitwear Argyll: The county Armed Forces: Use upper case if referring to British forces artefact: Not artifact Ascot: The town and racecourse Royal Ascot: The racing event attended by the Royal family Asperger's syndrome assume/presume: Assume = to take for granted; presume = to suppose based on probability assure/insure: Assure for lives, insure for property at a glance: No hyphens Atacms: Acronym of Army Tactical Missile System (initial cap only) ATM: Banned American term. Use cash machine Attorney General: No hyphen Auschwitz: Nazi death camp within modern-day Poland. Do not call it 'a Polish death camp' Australian Labor Party: No 'u' in Labor autarchy: Absolute sovereignty autarky: Self-sufficiency author: A noun. Avoid use as a verb Ayatollah Khomenei (dead), Ayatollah Khamenei (living)
