{"id":7955,"date":"2026-07-18T18:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T18:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/18\/armed-groups-attack-malian-military-convoy-in-gao-region\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T18:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T18:37:07","slug":"armed-groups-attack-malian-military-convoy-in-gao-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/18\/armed-groups-attack-malian-military-convoy-in-gao-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed groups attack Malian military convoy in Gao region"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Mali says counterattack under way as rebels claim they inflicted \u2018human losses\u2019 and \u2018material damage\u2019 on troops.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Mali\u2019s army says it has launched a counterattack after fighters linked to al-Qaeda and members of a separatist group ambushed soldiers in the volatile north.<\/p>\n<p>The Malian military said in a statement on Saturday that armed groups ambushed a convoy in a remote part of the Gao region.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/7\/7\/aje-onl-nf_russia-sends-weapons-to-mali-hold-off-rebel-siege-060726\">Russia sends weapons to help Mali\u2019s government hold off rebel siege<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/11\/algeria-and-mali-restore-diplomatic-ties-following-yearlong-rift\">Algeria and Mali restore diplomatic ties following yearlong rift<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/12\/some-30-malian-soldiers-killed-during-anefis-retaking-says-army-chief\">Some 30 Malian soldiers killed during retaking of key town, says army chief<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Both the regional al-Qaeda affiliate, Jama\u2019at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), and the separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) claimed responsibility for the attack in separate statements that spoke about \u201cgreat human losses\u201d and \u201cserious material damage\u201d on the side of the Malian army.<\/p>\n<p>The army has not provided details of its losses but said its partners were also attacked, likely referring to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/6\/16\/wagner-vs-africa-corps-the-future-of-russian-paramilitaries-in-mali\">Russian paramilitaries<\/a> or mercenaries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur convoy that was leaving Anefis for Gao was attacked this morning near Tabankort. The fighting is ongoing. It is an ambush,\u201d a military source based in Gao told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>Mali has been in the grip of a security crisis for more than 14 years.<\/p>\n<p>The FLA seeks to establish an independent state in northern Mali. Meanwhile, JNIM is considered the deadliest armed group of its kind in West Africa.<\/p>\n<p>JNIM seeks to capture more territory and currently controls swaths of rural land. The fighting has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with more than five million people \u2013 almost 20 percent of the population \u2013 in need of assistance.<\/p>\n<p>AFP reported that images released by the FLA purportedly showed dozens of army prisoners seized during the ambush.<\/p>\n<p>The rebels also released footage that they said showed Malian soldiers surrendering.<\/p>\n<p>In the video, the rebels appear to shoot at some of the soldiers as they lie on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The ambush occurred as the Malian army convoy was travelling from the strategic northern town of Anefis to Gao.<\/p>\n<p>On July 10, the Malian army confirmed it had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/12\/some-30-malian-soldiers-killed-during-anefis-retaking-says-army-chief\">retaken Anefis<\/a> in an operation that killed about 30 of its soldiers and injured about 60 others. The town had been seized by the FLA and JNIM six days earlier. The FLA said it lost some of its best fighters during the offensive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mali says counterattack under way as rebels claim they inflicted \u2018human losses\u2019 and \u2018material damage\u2019 on troops. Mali\u2019s army says it has launched a counterattack after fighters linked to al-Qaeda and members of a separatist group ambushed soldiers in the volatile north. The Malian military said in a statement on Saturday that armed groups ambushed &#8230; <a title=\"Armed groups attack Malian military convoy in Gao region\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/18\/armed-groups-attack-malian-military-convoy-in-gao-region\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Armed groups attack Malian military convoy in Gao region\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}