Media claims Somalis are fighting with Touraeg Rebel Group

[Jaidi]

A renowned Islamist leader and his fighters on Monday seized control of Timbuktu and chased out the Tuareg rebels with whom they captured Mali's fabled city a day earlier, witnesses said.

"Iyad (Ag Ghaly) came this morning with about 50 cars. They took the city, chased away the people from MNLA (Azawad National Liberation Movement) who were there, burned the MNLA flag and put their own flag up at the military camp," said cameraman Moussa Haidara who filmed events.

This was confirmed by several residents of the town.

"This Monday, Iyad Ag Ghaly came to Timbuktu with his men to expel the MNLA," said a hotel owner, speaking on condition of anonymity and referring to the main Tuareg rebel group that relaunched a rebellion in January.

"He came to the hospital to ask the nurses to work, to take care of people, afterwards he told the population not to be afraid, that they are there for Islam, not for independence or to hurt anyone."

Ag Ghaly's movement Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith, in Arabic) and the MNLA have been fighting alongside each other over the past weeks and on Sunday stormed into Timbuktu together.

Though they have been fighting side by side over the past several months, the two groups have very different objectives.

The MNLA seeks the independence of northern Mali, which it considers the Tuareg homeland that it calls Azawad, while Ansar Dine wants to implement Sharia law in the mostly Muslim, but secular state. Ag Ghaly was the leader of a Tuareg rebellion between 1990-95 and became a key power broker in negotiations between government and Tuareg fighters in a 2007-09 rebellion.

President Amadou Toumani Toure, who was deposed by renegade soldiers on March 22, had even sent the ex-rebel as an envoy to the Malian consulate in Saudi Arabia.

He has since taken up the Islamist cause and has distanced himself from the Tuareg national struggle, though details of why remain murky. He announced the formation of Ansar Dine in March.

The cameraman Haidara said among the Ansar Dine fighters were Somalis, Nigerians and Tunisians.



Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Funda ... z1r0NF7l8x



You gotta be kidding me....We have become the world's biggest scapegoats. Everyone from Yemenis to Libyans to Touareg claiming we are involved in fighting



Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Funda ... z1r0Mjs1Yv

[SahanGalbeed]

They are Mauritanians , not Somalis
Let me tell you what , we're just an informed an outspoken people , that's why everybody thinks we must be involved in evry fight .
Even the Russians said they 've seen blacks corpses in Chechnya , must have been somalis , oh and the forget the israelis who said we were fighting for hizbullah in Lebanon
Wallahi we could have ruled ALL of Africa

[Thuganomics]

Somalida sassbey ka qaadeen malaha,I was watching a docu on the Iraq war once
And this A merican soldier was saying that they weren't fighting Iraqis but Somalis and Sudanis

[Jaidi]

They are Mauritanians , not Somalis
Let me tell you what , we're just an informed an outspoken people , that's why everybody thinks we must be involved in evry fight .
Even the Russians said they 've seen blacks corpses in Chechnya , must have been somalis , oh and the forget the israelis who said we were fighting for hizbullah in Lebanon
Wallahi we could have ruled ALL of Africa

I forgot the Hizballah thing. The Nigerians were saying Boko Haram got trained in Somalia

[fighter]

Somalis were actually kept back by the European colonialists from capturing lands from the naked barefoot Bantus.

[SahanGalbeed]

Cameraman Moussa Haidara probably an arabo songhay resident of timbuktu is trying to depict an alliance between boko haram {nigeria}, al shabaab{somalia} and some unknown tunisian group plotting in the middle of the desert .

[SahanGalbeed]

On Sunday, trucks carrying fighters from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the main rebel group of Tuareg tribesmen, paraded into Timbuktu, residents and local officials said. The Associated Press reported that a smaller rebel group, Ansar ud-Din, was also in the city. Residents reported seeing its black flag flying, and said fighters from the group, which espouses an Islamist philosophy, were on the streets to prevent looting

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/world ... buktu.html

[anilweyne]

Wayaa SahanGalbeed,

I've noticed that you seem to have a lot of knowledge on Toureg people/Mali.Chad/Mauritania region.
Care to explain your input/interactions with the people? Thanks

[Colonel]

I wouldn't believe that, on TV a news channel just had an interview with residents of Timbuktu which said that the Tuareg are in control of the town and that the Ansal Al Din fighters were just going around bars to stop people from selling/drinking alcohol.

[NoAngst.]

Cameraman Moussa Haidara probably an arabo songhay resident of timbuktu is trying to depict an alliance between boko haram {nigeria}, al shabaab{somalia} and some unknown tunisian group plotting in the middle of the desert .

He may be right though because the black flag of Alqaacida was flying over Timbaktu according to recent media reports from there. Timbaktu is a city the derives most of its revenues from tourism.