Английская Википедия:Battle of Elakla

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Шаблон:Notability

Шаблон:Infobox military conflict Шаблон:Campaignbox Mali War

The battle of Elakla took place on February 21, 2019, between French forces of Operation Barkhane and al-Qaeda aligned Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.

Prelude

After the creation of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin in 2017, a jihadist group that was the result of five Sahelian jihadist groups merging, French forces in Operation Barkhane aided Malian government efforts to fight the group. Djamel Okacha was a founding member of JNIM, and the second-in-command of the group.[1]

Battle

Barkhane forces launched an operation on the afternoon of February 21 after spotting three vehicles deemed suspicious moving throughout Tombouctou Region.[1] The French army launched drone strikes on the vehicles, before sending in ground forces, five helicopters, and an MQ-9 drone.[1] The aircraft took off at 1:13pm from Bou Djeheba, north of Timbuktu.[2] An hour later, one pick-up was spotted by the drones, before being joined by two more vehicles.[2] After a chase, two pick-ups stopped and surrendered after being shot at.[2] The ground forces chased the third truck, but were only able to catch it after a second group of commandos intervened as it tried to blend into civilians.[2] As the drivers felt trapped, they got out and shot at the French commandos, but were killed.[1]

Aftermath

The French government claimed 11 fighters were put out of action, including Djamel Okacha and his two main deputies.[3] Seifallah Ben Hassine, nom de guerre Abou Iyadh and leader of the Tunisian jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia, was also killed in the battle.[4] Okacha's death was confirmed by Sedane Ag Hita, another top member of JNIM, and later JNIM leader and founder Abdelmalek Droukdel.[5][6]

References

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