French Troops Kill Two Top Members of AQIM

On May 20, the French defense ministry released a statement saying that French Special Forces killed two top leaders of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in northern Mali. The men were identified as Amada Ag Hama, also known as “Abdelkrim the Tuareg,” and Ibrahim Ag Inawalen, also known as “Bana.” Two other jihadists were also killed in the operation.

Amada Ag Hama and Ibrahim Ag Inawalen were both leaders in AQIM in Africa’s Sahel region and had connections to Ansar Dine, another terrorist organization in the region that is lead by Hama’s cousin Iyad Ag Ghaly. Hama has links to numerous killings, including the 2013 kidnapping and subsequent killings of Claude Verlon and Ghisalaine Dupont. The two were journalists for Radio France Internationale and were abducted after interviewing Ambeiry Ag Rhissa, a local leader of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) Tuareg separatist group in Kidal, Mali.

AQIM originated during Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s as an Islamist militia movement violently opposed to Algeria’s secular government. It began as the Armed Islamic Group and then became the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. In the 2000s, the group linked itself to Al Qaeda and renamed itself AQIM in order to improve its recruitment and fundraising efforts. It has been described as a conglomerate of smaller groups that come together when necessary to commit larger attacks or crimes. After linking with Al Qaeda, the organization broadened its scope. No longer focusing solely on Algeria, it now seeks to rid all of northern Africa of Western influence. It threatens France regularly and praised the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Ansar Dine was founded in 2012 as a militia movement in the conflict between the government of Mali and the nomadic Tuareg, who have been fighting the government in order to gain more autonomy. It was founded by Iyad Ag Ghaly, and is different from other Tuareg rebel groups because it is a Salafist Muslim group like AQIM. Although it had ties with MNLA, the two groups differed because secular MNLA was concerned with establishing an autonomous region for the Tuareg and Ansar Dine wanted to establish strict Sharia law.

Salafism is a branch of Islam that believes the religion has strayed from its origins and “salaf” is an Arabic word meaning “ancient one.” It believes the modern religion does not adhere to the Islamic texts as they were written when the religion was founded, and preaches a return to this original state. Salafi jihadism originated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which had “The Quran is our constitution” as its original slogan.

Most western pushback against AQIM has come from the MINUSMA, a military peacekeeping mission authorized by the UN Security council, and from France. French troops have helped keep the group out of major towns and cities, although they occasionally attack. The U.S. State Department has designated AQIM as an official Foreign Terrorist Organization and believes that the group will be best combatted by providing indirect support to local governments.

The May 20 killing of the four jihadists comes as a part of France’s Operation Barkhane in Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, which involves 3,000 troops. The operation’s two missions are to press the local governments’ armed forces to fight against the terrorist organizations in the area and to contribute to those groups’ destructions. All of Operation Barkhane is taking place in areas that were once colonized by France; therefore, France has more knowledge and experience with the local cultures and terrorist organizations than other countries combatting international terrorism. French presence has helped discover hundreds of tons of arms and munitions, and it has aided significantly in keeping AQIM and other militia groups out of population centers.