Mali secret services shot one of the alleged perpetrators of the March 7th attack in Bamako on Friday, according to secret service reports to AFP. The attack killed 5 victims in the capital, including a Belgian citizen. “During an assault launched on Friday, one of the alleged perpetrators of last Saturday’s terrorist attack was killed. He refused to surrender,” revealed the second-in-command of the secret services also known as state security forces. “We found the man in a working-class neighbourhood in Bamako. He hailed from the north of the country and had shaved his head in the meantime,” explained another leader of the security forces who claims he took part in the operation. He added that the suspect had light skin. “He was one of the attackers last Saturday. He is the one who was riding a motorcycle as he threw a grenade in the street where the bar-restaurant La Terrasse is located,” he claimed.
A hospital source indicated that to the French Press Agency (AFP) that the body of the man had been taken to Gabriel Touré hospital, the same hospital the attack victims were taken to.
With support from policemen from the UN mission in Mali (Minusma) and reinforcements from French and Belgian investigators, the investigation is targeting 10 “well organised terrorists”, according to well-informed sources. They include a Russian-Malian bi-national whose whereabouts are not known, and the alleged driver, probably disabled, add the sources.
The attack with grenades and automatic rifles was the first to target Westerners in Bamako, and killed 5 victims: 3 Malians, one Belgian and a Frenchman. 8 people were also injured, including 2 Swiss nationals in the La Terrasse bar-restaurant and neighbourhood, a hub for the capital’s night life.
The attack was claimed by the jihadist group Al-Mourabitoune, who said they wanted to avenge the Muslim prophet “insulted and mocked by the unbelieving western world,” as well as one of its leaders killed by the French army in northern Mali in December.
(Source: Belga)
