The Kati military camp, 15 km from the capital, was the target of an assault on Katiba Macina, according to the army, “with two trapped vehicles full of explosives”.
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The attackers may not have achieved their objective, but they have successfully demonstrated: that of their ability to strike Malian power in his heart. Their target: the Soundiata-Keïta camp, in Kati, a town garrison 15 km from Bamako, which is both the main military base in Mali and the residence of its current president, Colonel Assimi Goïta, as well as his powerful minister De La Défense, Colonel Sadio Camara. The attack was led by “Katiba Macina terrorists”, Friday, July 22, at dawn, “with two trapped vehicles full of explosives”, said the press release published in the early afternoon by the state Major of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMA). This establishes a provisional assessment of a death on the side of the Malian army and “seven neutralized attackers”.
“In the vicinity of 5 am, a very large explosion woke us up. Then there were a second, then shots. But now the situation is mastered and people are reassured. Helicopter of the army fly over the city, which is completely completed, “explained a resident of the camp, well unable to determine the identity of this morning attack a few times. “Tell you if they are jihadists or a mutiny would be lying,” he said with caution.
The operating mode, however, confirms the first suspicions, which focused on armed Islamists much more than on unhappy soldiers of the orientation taken by the junta in power, while the attacks have recently come closer to the capital. Thursday, six operations, obviously coordinated and attributed to Katiba Macina, one of the components of the support group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), targeted the bases of the army in the center of the country, in Ségou , Douentza, Bapho and Mopti. The “more serious”, according to a foreign source, occurred in Kolokani, 120 km north of Bamako, killing two and three injured among the soldiers.
a very daring “revenge”
If it turns out that the assault on Friday on Kati was indeed led by fighters affidated to Amadou Koufa, the emir of Katiba Macina, he could then be interpreted as a demonstration of Force and a revenge “very daring in the heart of the security system”, according to an Malian officer, after the army operations in the center of the country.
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