Al-Mourabitoun owns up Mali attacks. Who are they?

November 20, 2015 22:50

Al-Mourabitoun is led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar the notorious jihadi believed responsible for the deadly attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013. The US has claimed that Belmokhtar was killed in an American air strike in June, although his fate remains unclear.

It was formed in 2013 out of a merger between Belmokhtars battalions and the Mali-based Movement for Monotheism and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao). The merger brought hundreds of largely Malian recruits into the militant group.

The group, based in the north of the country, is said to have carried out several attacks in the central and southern areas this year.

It claimed responsibility for an attack on a hotel in Sevare in central Mali in August, in which 13 people were killed, and an attack in Bamako on 7 March in which five people died when a gunman opened fire with a Kalashnikov inside the La Terrasse restaurant, on the roof of the VIP discotheque.

« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES

In Pictures - MI clinch thrilling victory over Punjab Kings

IMAGES from the IPL match between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians played in Mullanpur on Thursday

Tribal body calls 'indefinite shutdown' in Nagaland ahead of LS polls

The polls for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland will begin on 7 am on Friday.

Rohit Sharma: King of Mumbai Sixes

Rohit Sharma breaks Pollard's record for most sixes for MI

RSS won't celebrate centenary next year because ...

The RSS wants to transform society and believes that victory of society must not be judged on wealth creation but religion, he said.

Breast cancer survivor to run London marathon topless

The 50-year-old breast cancer survivor runs topless to help erase the stigma around the disease