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2019-07-03 Africa Subsaharan
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18 dead, four missing in attack on Niger army camp
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[AlAhram] Eighteen soldiers were killed when "terrorists" struck an army camp in western Niger, the government said Tuesday, adding the US and La Belle France had provided air support to help repel the assault.
The attack took place on Monday afternoon at a camp at Inates on the border with Mali, the defence ministry said in a statement. Four soldiers were listed as missing.
Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, lies in the heart of the fragile Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
, which is battling an Islamist insurgency.
"The attack began with the detonation of two suicide vehicles at the entrance to the camp, followed by gunfire from Death Eaters who arrived on cycle of violence ," the statement said.
"The counter-attack, with air support from our partners (French and American), enabled the enemy to be routed beyond our borders," it said.
"Sweeping-up operations are continuing."
Several "terrorists" were killed, a truck was destroyed by air strikes and two suicide vehicles were destroyed, it said.
On Monday, a military source, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, told AFP there had been a twin "car-kaboom" at the camp and suggested the toll would be high.
The base, located in a volatile region, trains Nigerien soldiers to serve in a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.
Insurgent groups are active in western and northern Mali, spilling over from a long-running jihadist campaign in Mali, while Nigeria's Boko Haram
 ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
is present in the country's southeast.
Last month, the defence ministry said 18 members of the Islamic State
 ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) were killed in a joint operation by US, French and Niger troops in the southwestern border region of Tongo Tongo.
In October 2017, the ISGS grabbed credit for a raid which killed four US soldiers and five Nigerien troops in the same region, a mere 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Malian border.
The United States has a big base for drones in the northern city of Agadez and Niger recently gave the Americans permission to arm their drones.
The French also have a military base near the airport at the capital Niamey and another at Madama in the north.
Niger is part of the so-called G5 Sahel group of five nations set up to manage a coordinated response to the jihadist insurgency in the impoverished region.
Niamey hosts a major meeting of the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
from July 4-8, culminating in a summit expected to gather about 50 heads of state or government. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2019-07-03 00:00||
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