Al-Qaeda’s north African branch warned Western states including France Thursday against a military bid to rescue hostages kidnapped in Mali, citing “information” of plans for such an operation.
“We send a warning to France, Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden: if they authorise this operation it will mean the death of their nationals and amount to an attempt on their lives,” it said in a statement in Arabic.
“According to information we have received, the alliance of crusaders led by France which supports certain regimes like those of Algeria and Mauritania, is preparing an imminent military operation to free their hostages.”
The statement was emailed to AFP in Rabat and carried by the ANI news agency in Mauritania which has published several AQIM statements in the past. These have never been disclaimed.
“We would like to state that we are searching a peaceful solution to this issue of the hostages,” it added. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has claimed the kidnapping last November of two Frenchmen in the northern Malian town of Hombori, and another three Westerners a day later in Timbuktu, also in the north of the West African nation.
Frenchmen Philippe Verdon and Serge Lazarevic, who described themselves as a geologist and an engineer but were later identified as having had ties with mercenaries, were taken from their hotel in the middle of the night.
A day later, an armed gang snatched a Swede, a Dutchman and a man with dual British-South African nationality from a restaurant on Timbuktu’s central square and killed a German with them who tried to resist.
