BBC reported Tuesday that an al-Qaeda-linked group has said it was behind an early morning attack in Mali’s capital, Bamako. “Armed men targeted a military training school and other areas in the city, the authorities said, blaming ‘a group of terrorists’ for the assault,” BBC reported. Jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility, saying it had inflicted heavy human and material losses. The government acknowledged that some soldiers had been killed or wounded.
This follows by days the final pull-out of U.S. troops from Niger, specifically from the base which has been used by the U.S. for drone attacks across the Sahel and beyond. BBC notes: “The attack was the first of its kind in years to hit Bamako. Before Tuesday, the city had largely avoided the Islamist insurgency that has wracked Mali for more than a decade. JNIM is considered to be one of the most active militant groups in the wider Sahel region, having staged numerous attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.”