A group of jihadists associated with Al-Qaeda, said she killed four mercenaries from the Russian private military company Wagner in the center of Mali, said Site Intelligence Group on Monday, which will monitor jihadian sites.
The support group of Islam and Muslims, the main jihadist alliance in Sahel, said that on Saturday it was ambushed by a group of PMC Vagner when they were traveling on motorcycles in the Bandiagar region from the village of Jalo towards the mountains. The authenticity of the message is confirmed by Site Intelligence. The statement states that its militants killed four people from the group, and the rest disappeared, Agency France-Presse reports.
Two local officials confirmed the incident agency, while a senior official of the Mali army refused to confirm or refute it. A source in the hospital in the region also confirmed the “death in the battle of four Russians.”
Mali authorities attracted Russian militarized formations, which Bamako calls military instructors, and Western countries – mercenaries, to support their armed forces. The deployment of the “Wagnerians” has become a key factor that prompted France, the traditional ally of Mali, to withdraw their armed forces from the country.
The support group of Islam and Muslims, whose local influence continues to expand, includes many jihadist groups and acts mainly in Mali and neighboring Burkina-Faso.