Bamako, Mali:
An Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group claimed to have killed four mercenaries from Russia’s private security group Wagner in an ambush in central Mali, the SITE Intelligence monitoring group said Monday.
The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, said it ambushed a group of Wagner soldiers on Saturday as they rode motorcycles in the Bandiagara region from the village of Djallo to the mountains, according to a statement by his propaganda arm authenticated by SITE.
The fighters killed four of the group while the rest fled, the statement said.
Two local elected officials confirmed the incident to AFP, while a senior Malian army official declined to confirm or deny it.
“Four Russians were killed by jihadists near Bandiagara last weekend,” one of the local officials, who asked for anonymity, told AFP.
A hospital source in the region also confirmed the “death in battle of four Russians”, adding that one had “passed through Mopti hospital”.
Russia has become a close ally of the Malian junta in its fight against a long-running jihadist insurgency.
The regime has brought in Russian paramilitary fighters – described by Bamako as military instructors, but by Western countries as mercenaries – to support the besieged forces.
Their commitment was a key factor in inciting France, Mali’s former colonial power and traditional ally, to withdraw its armed forces from the country.
The GSIM, whose influence locally is growing, includes numerous jihadist groups and is mainly active in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)