Wagner in Africa

[Half Cocked]

Tuareg rebels in northern Mali on Saturday said they had killed and injured dozens of government soldiers and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group in fighting over two days near the border with Algeria. Mali’s army said two of its soldiers were killed and 10 were injured.

Mali's northern Tuareg rebels said they had killed and injured dozens of soldiers and Wagner mercenaries in two days of fighting near the Algerian border, after the army said it had lost two soldiers but killed some 20 rebels.

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[media]https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1817282576395997628[/media]
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The rebel movement, the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), said in a statement on Saturday that it had seized armoured vehicles, trucks and tankers in the fighting at the border town of Tinzaouaten on Thursday and Friday.

The rebel group also said it damaged a helicopter, which crashed in the town of Kidal, hundreds of kilometres away.

The Malian army said in statements that two soldiers had been killed and 10 injured. One of its helicopters had crashed in Kidal on Friday while on a routine mission but no one was killed, it said.

Several Russian military bloggers reported on Sunday that at least 20 from the Wagner group were killed in an ambush near the Algerian border.

"Employees of the Wagner PMC (Group), who were moving in a convoy with government troops, were killed in Mali ... Some were captured," said a prominent Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, who uses the name War Gonzo.

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https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...ernment-troops-wagner-mercenaries/ar-BB1qLA7N
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[Half Cocked]

More videos of the attack on the Wagner column in Africa.

[media]https://twitter.com/conflict_live/status/1817372647543693649[/media]
[media]https://twitter.com/theinformant_x/status/1817306888079560742[/media]
[media]https://twitter.com/OCanonist/status/1817901765192454530[/media]
[media]https://twitter.com/warfareanalysis/status/1817395966435275180[/media]

 

[Suck My Glock]

Saw a picture earlier today of the victorious group posing. You could plainly pick out the singular white European advisor in the bunch, wearing western gear, reported to be a Ukrainian SOF commando dispatched to the area specifically to cause this sort of mayhem.



Found it.

 

[Half Cocked]

More on the Wagner activities in Africa:

Shortly after Malian forces captured the Tuareg rebel stronghold of Kidal in November, mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group, who backed the government troops, briefly hoisted their flag over the city for a photo op.

Over the ensuing months, the Russian mercenaries would "openly taunt" the Tuaregs and the Islamic extremist groups battling for control of the country by posting provocative or daring images on their Telegram channel, according to Caleb Weiss, an expert on the Sahel region with the U.S.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Now, eight months later, the Tuaregs, supported by Islamic extremist groups, are the ones celebrating. In what was likely a coordinated ambush, the two forces killed several dozen Wagner fighters and Malian troops outside the northeastern town of Tinzaouaten late last week, according to various reports.

The combatant loss is likely the largest suffered by Russian forces since they returned to Africa a few years ago and could match the number of French troops killed in service on the continent from 2013 to 2022, Weiss said.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-africa-wagner-battle-rebels/33056264.html

How did this battle play out?

On Saturday, it became known about the largest defeat that Russian mercenaries suffered during their presence in Africa: when they retreated from the village of Tinzauten in northern Mali, they were ambushed and lost several dozen people killed. Radio Liberty tells how the events of Saturday's battle developed and what interests Russia pursues in this African country.

Under the control of the government forces, on the side of which the Wagner PMC is fighting, there is only part of the territory of Mali, mainly the south and part of the center of the country. Despite the fact that the Armed Forces of Mali, with the support of Russian mercenaries, have recently advanced north and captured almost all key cities in the region, including Kidal and Abeybara, most of the northern territory, according to Russian pro-war bloggers, is still under the control of the separatist group "Azawad Coordinating Movement," which advocates the independence of the Tuaregated areas, or the official authorities, are not controlled.

Another part of the country is controlled by the jihadist group Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin (DIMM), affiliated with the terrorist organization "Al-Qaeda," as well as another terrorist group, "Islamic State in the Greater Sahara" (IGS).

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To read details of the battle click the link below (Radio Liberty, Russian language edition) and use your browser's translate feature.
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https://www.svoboda.org/a/afrikanskaya-lovushka-istoriya-razgroma-chvk-vagner-v-mali/33054040.html
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[xerts1191]

 

[smithers599]

Great. A fight between communists and Al-Qaeda. No good outcome there.