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Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emir Abdelhamid Abou Zeid was killed in Mali by a French airstrike, Ennahar TV reported Thursday (February 28th).
The commander of AQIM’s Tariq Ibn Ziyad Brigade was reportedly killed along with 40 other terrorists when French warplanes bombed a convoy in the area of Tigharghar in northern Mali, not far from the Algerian border.
The military and the United Nations say that over 3,000 people have fled their homes and are camping around a UN peace force base in Kitchanga area of North Kivu Province.
Correspondents in the area said that the APCLS militia attacked the town targeting Kinyarwanda speakers who are seen as supporters of the rival M23 rebels.
Thailand’s government agreed on Thursday to start talks with a major Muslim rebel group, marking a breakthrough in efforts to end a worsening conflict in the country’s south that has claimed over 5,000 lives since 2004.
The agreement, signed in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur by senior Thai security officials and members of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) group, opens the way for the first formal peace talks with rebels seeking autonomy or even a separate state in the south.