5 Suicide bombers launch attacks in Mali

[cratehorus]

Five suicide bombers carried out two simultaneous attacks on soldiers in Mali on Friday in another indication of the growing coordination of operations by militants against African and French forces.

The attacks only killed the bombers and wounded two Malian soldiers, but they highlighted the continued threat posed by the al-Qaida-linked militants, four months after France launched an offensive to oust them from urban centers in this West African nation.

Four men entered the northern Malian town of Gossi at around 4:30 a.m. Friday, according to local official Sidi Ben Hamou. Three blew themselves up at a military checkpoint, wounding two Malian soldiers.

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande and visiting Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou portrayed the French-led intervention as a military victory. The French, helped by troops from neighboring African countries including Niger, launched a military operation to take back the north of Mali on Jan. 11.

"I've always said that there are still armed groups in Mali," Hollande told reporters. He reiterated that for this reason 1,000 French soldiers will remain until the end of the year "who can in any event intervene if ... there were terrorist actions."

The initial offensive led by the French succeeded in freeing the major towns in the north from the grips of the extremists, who occupied a France-sized territory a year ago, imposing Shariah law and opening terrorist training camps.

However, the northern provincial capital of Kidal was quickly retaken by a Tuareg rebel group, known as the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad. The jihadists fled into the surrounding desert and there have been repeated suicide attacks, including at least four in Gao, and two each in Timbuktu and Kidal.

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/...505443.php

[Minimalist]

The attacks only killed the bombers

Sorry... can't resist.

[Violet]

Five people blow themselves up... and only manage to injure two people?

My goodness but they're bad at this.

[festive1]

My husband was in Mali this past November. They are holding elections in July... Those are probably going to be difficult, and we'll likely see an escalation of these types of attacks
At least it was a military target, not a civilian one.