A branch of "Al Qaeda" said his fighters killed 50 mercenaries from the Russian private military company "Wagner" and 10 Malian soldiers in an ambush in Mali's northern Kidal region, near the border with Algeria, on Saturday, Reuters reported. The agency refers to the American specialized site SITE, which monitors the activity of Islamist groups on the Internet, writes BTA.
The ambush took place on the same day that the Tuareg rebel movement, known as the "Permanent Strategic Structure for Peace, Security and Development" (PSS-MSR), claimed to have killed and wounded dozens of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from "Wagner” during several days of fighting in the border town of Tinzahuaten.
This appears to be Wagner's worst defeat since the Russian company joined the Malian junta's fight against Islamist groups that have been insurgent in the Sahel region since 2012 two years ago.
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Mali, where the army seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, has said that Russian forces there are not "Wagner" mercenaries but trainers who help local troops with equipment bought from Russia. However, in an unusual statement yesterday "Wagner" said his fighters fought alongside Malian soldiers from July 22 to 27 near Tinzahuaten and suffered heavy casualties, including the death of their commander, Serhiy Shevchenko.
Several Russian military bloggers reported at least 20 killed in the ranks of "Wagner”.
On Sunday, SITE quoted a statement from the branch of "Al Qaeda” - "Jamaa Nusrat ul Islam wa al-Muslimeen", which said its fighters managed to "complexly ambush a Malian army convoy and mercenaries of" Wagner"“ south of Tinzahuaten.