...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 Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group in a prisoner exchange, a security official and two politicians told AFP on Saturday.
The Sahel country's military had in recent days released Oumeya Ould Albakaye and Dadi Ould Cheghoub, both members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara
...he succulent fruit of the union of splinter factions from Mokhtar Bekmokhtar'sal-Mourabitunes and MUJAO. Once the dust had settled and the smell of gunsmoke had dissipated, they became the Islamic State in Mali, then adopted their present clever name. They are headed by Adnan Abu Walid Saharaoui. It operates along the borders of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
, Niger, and Mali...
(ISGS), flying them from Bamako to the Gao region in the north, the security official said.
One of the politicians, an elected official in Gao, said that at least three jihadists were brought there on a military plane from Bamako.
All three sources said the operation was part of a prisoner exchange.
A fourth person, another security official, would not go so far but said a "gesture" was made "to protect the lives of our compatriots in mortal danger". He did not provide details.
Albakaye, an explosives expert, was captured by French forces in June 2022, before La Belle France withdrew its troops last year.
A security source who asked not to be named told AFP at the time that he had once been seen as a potential successor to former ISGS leader Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, who was killed by French forces in August 2021.
A regional chief commanding the areas of Gourma in Mali and Oudalan in neighbouring Burkina Faso, he was responsible for a large number of abuses against civilians in those countries, the military said last year.
Mali has been battling a security crisis since jihadist and separatist insurgencies broke out in the north in 2012.
Anger at the government's failure to stem the violence helped spark two coups in 2020 and 2021. The ruling junta has broken ties with traditional ally La Belle France and turned towards Russia.