Mali says military operation in Moura area kills 200 militants

DAKAR (Reuters) – Mali’s army mentioned it has killed over 200 Islamist militants in an operation within the centre of the West African nation, the newest conflict in a month of escalating violence.

The strikes, carried out in late March by land and air troops, focused the world of Moura which the army says is a stronghold of jihadist teams which have waged a decade-long combat for territory in central and northern Mali.

“This operation follows very exact data that made it potential to find the holding of a gathering between varied (militants) in Moura,” a army assertion mentioned.

Mali has been in turmoil since 2012 when Islamist insurgents took over a northern separatist rebel. Native associates of Islamic State and al Qaeda have used the world as a launch pad for assaults in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing hundreds.

A spate of violence by Islamic State within the Higher Sahara in March claimed the lives of lots of of civilians. The army responded with airstrikes, and the United Nations peacekeeping power in Mali deployed two items to the zone.

Rights teams have expressed concern concerning the plight of civilians caught within the crossfire or wrongly accused of being militants.

Troopers killed at the least 71 civilians between December and March, New York-based Human Rights Watch mentioned in a report final month. The army, which denied the fees, is investigating allegations of human rights violations within the centre and north of the nation.

(Reporting by Edward McAllister; Enhancing by Mike Harrison)