Militant Groups Unite in Mali

Two Islamist groups that broke away
from al-Qaida's North African wing and
fought in Mali have merged, pledging to
attack French interests, according to a
statement published on Thursday.

The move unites fighters led by Mokhtar
Belmokhtar, the alleged mastermind of
an attack on an Algerian gas plant in
January, with MUJWA, an Islamist
group that was scattered by a French
offensive on al-Qaida-linked rebels in
Mali this year.

The two groups had already jointly
claimed responsibility for raids in May
that killed dozens at a barracks and
damaged a uranium mine operated by
France's Areva in Niger.

“It is the birth of a group that includes
Mujahideen and even Muslims in North
Africa from the country of the Nile and
the Atlantic,” Mauritania's Nouakchott
Information Agency, ANI, quoted
Belmokhtar as saying in a statement it
received.

It was not possible to independently
verify the report but North African
Islamist militants frequently use ANI to
publish their statements.

The new name for the group was given
as Al-Mourabitoun. It was not
immediately clear who had been named
its leader.

Belmokhtar is quoted as saying the
group aimed to create an Islamic state
and recent events in Egypt had shown
how the “Zionist and Crusader” forces
wanted to destroy Islam.
France sent warplanes and thousands of
troops to Mali in January and officials
say hundreds of Islamists were killed in
bombing raids and battles in Mali's
mountains and deserts.

Chad, which took part in some of the
heaviest fighting alongside French
troops, had claimed to have killed
Belmokhtar. But no evidence was
provided and diplomats in the region
have long doubted the claim.

MUJWA and Belmokhtar's fighters
appear to have escaped the brunt of the
offensive, security officials say, a view
backed up by their raid on neighboring
Niger.

In the statement sent to ANI, Belmokhtar
said the group would concentrate on
attacking French interests.
“We say to France and its allies in the
region ... the Mujahideen have met and
agreed to defeat your armies and
destroy your plans and projects,” he
said.

Belmokhtar was charged by U.S.
prosecutors in July with participating in
the In Amenas gas plant attack that
killed dozens of workers.

He formed his own group after years as
a commander of al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahara, where
he acquired a reputation as a smuggler
as well as a jihadist.

MUJWA emerged in late 2011, it too
claiming to have split from AQIM.
However, the Islamists collaborated
during their nine-month occupation of
northern Mali last year.