Islamists push secular Tuaregs into Mali desert

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) ? Islamists in northern Mali said Wednesday they pushed the secular Tuareg rebels out of the northwest town of Lere, and now have control of the main towns bordering Mauritania and Niger.

Mohamed Ag Attaye, the spokesman for the Tuareg group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, said that his group, also known as the NMLA, retreated to a base north of Lere, which is 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border with Mauritania.

"For five days MUJAO and Ansar Dine have encircled the town of Lere," he said, adding that they bribed some Tuaregs to join their group.

More than a week ago the Islamists seized Menaka, which was the Tuareg's last bastion in north Mali since June when they were driven out of the main northern cities by the Islamists.

Mali was plunged into turmoil in March after a coup in the capital of Bamako created a security vacuum. That allowed the secular NMLA to sweep across the north, taking half the territory and declaring it a new nation called "Azawad," which was supposed to create a homeland for the Tuareg people, who have long felt marginalized by Mali's government. The Tuaregs are the traditional inhabitants of northern Mali, but the country's administrative heart has always been in Bamako, hundreds of kilometers (miles) away, an area dominated by darker-skinned ethnic groups that are culturally distinct from the Tuaregs. Only months later, the rebels were kicked out by Islamist groups allied with al-Qaida, which have now imposed strict Shariah law in the north.

The spokesman of the extremist group Ansar Dine, Sanda Abou Mohamed, confirmed that they have taken Lere.

"Some have joined us, others have left the city," he said.

In the areas under their control, which now includes a territory almost as large as France, the Islamists have imposed a harsh form of Islamic law. Northern Mali's independent and outspoken women have been forced to wear head-to-toe veils, and accused thieves have had their hands hacked off in gruesome public spectacles that recall the worst days of Afghanistan under Taliban rule. On Wednesday, a resident in a small village nearly 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Timbuktu says the Islamists seized and burned 200 cartons of cigarettes worth 20 million CFA (about $40,000) in the latest application of Shariah.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/islamists-push-secular-tuaregs-mali-desert-164457646.html

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