Bloody attack in Mali’s capital shows al-Qaeda’s shifting strategy (original) (raw)

DAKAR, Senegal — Following an attack by one of al-Qaeda’s most powerful affiliates that killed dozens in Mali’s capital, the group’s message was clear: Its target had been Mali’s junta government — and the Russian mercenaries meant to be serving as its protectors.

When militants struck Bamako before dawn last month, filming much of their assault, they ambushed a military training school and set fire to planes at the international airport, where Russia’s Wagner Group is reported to have one of its bases in Mali. The al-Qaeda affiliate released a statement afterward declaring the attack had been driven by vengeance — a punishment for “massacres and slaughters committed by this ruling clique and its Russian allies against our Muslim people.”