Page 9 - Aruba Today
P. 9
WORLD NEWS 9
Tuesday 22 March 2016
Gunmen attack EU mission in
Mali capital; 1 attacker dead
BABA AHMED backpack lay beside him. ing it had come under at- Mali troops on alert near the European Union military mission in
Associated Press Cmdr. Modibo Naman tack by small arms fire but Bamako, Mali, Monday, March 21, 2016.
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Traore, a spokesman for no personnel had been
Gunmen launched an the Malian special forces, wounded, and that Malian Associated Press
attack Monday evening said three other attackers security forces were secur-
on the European Union were still being sought. As ing the area.
military training mission’s of late Monday, no group EU soldiers, the Malian
headquarters in the Ma- had claimed responsibility. army, national police and
lian capital, Bamako, in Sgt. Baba Dembele from other security forces stood
what appeared to be the the anti-terrorism unit in Ba- outside the hotel.
latest in a series of attacks mako told an Associated The assault comes about
on Western interests in the Press reporter at the scene four months after jihadis
region. that it was believed some attacked the Radisson Blu
Armed forces killed at least attackers had entered the hotel in Mali’s capital, kill-
one man, who lay outside Hotel Nord-Sud, where the ing 20 people. Al-Qaida in
the hotel in jeans and a mission is headquartered. the Islamic Maghreb and
shirt in a pool of blood next The EU training mission later al-Mourabitoun claimed
to a Kalashnikov rifle. His released a statement say- responsibility for that at-
tack, saying it was their first
Secret operation joint attack since al-Mour- three attackers as mem- led military mission forced
brings 19 of Yemen’s abitoun joined al-Qaida’s bers of al-Mourabitoun and them from power in 2013.
last Jews to Israel North Africa branch in Sahara units. Over the past year, the ji-
2015. This week marks the fourth hadis have mounted a
JERUSALEM (AP) — Some Jewish Agency. “Yemenite In January, extremists from anniversary of the coup growing wave of violent at-
of Yemen’s last remaining Jewry’s unique, 2,000-year- the same militant groups that unleashed wide- tacks against U.N. peace-
Jews have arrived in Israel old contribution to the attacked a cafe near a ho- spread chaos in Mali. Af- keepers who are trying to
after a clandestine opera- Jewish people will continue tel popular with foreigners ter the overthrow of the help stabilize the country.
tion retrieved them from in the State of Israel.” in Burkina Faso’s capital, democratically elected The EU launched a training
the war-torn country, an The Jewish Agency would killing at least 30 people. president, extremists in the mission to help support and
Israeli nonprofit group said not disclose details of the And just last week, al-Qai- northern half of Mali took rebuild the Malian armed
Monday. secret mission, which it said da in the Islamic Maghreb over major towns and be- forces in February 2013 at
Over the last few days, 19 was a “complex covert claimed responsibility for gan implementing their the request of Malian au-
Yemenite Jews landed in Is- operation.” It named the an assault on a beach in strict interpretation of Is- thorities. The training is car-
rael — among them a rab- mission “Miktze Teiman,” Ivory Coast that left at least lamic law. The amputations ried out in Koulikoro, about
bi carrying a centuries old a Hebrew phrase taken 19 dead, identifying the and public whippings only 60 kilometers (37 miles)
Torah scroll —according to from a biblical verse that ended when a French- northeast of the capital.
the Jewish Agency, which roughly translates as “from
works closely with the Israeli the ends of Yemen.” Israeli
government and acts as Channel 2 TV said the U.S.
a link to Jews around the State Department was in-
world. volved, a report the Jewish
The rabbi, Saliman Dahari, Agency declined to com-
said the Torah scroll he ment on.
brought is 800 years old,
handed down over the The new arrivals leave be-
generations. hind a civil war raging in
Some of those airlifted to Yemen and a spate of
Israel relayed in Yemenite anti-Semitic attacks in the
accented Hebrew to Israeli country, which the Jewish
media the horrors of the Agency said was endan-
fighting in Yemen along gering the community.
with dangers they faced The Jews that have cho-
from extremist groups. sen to stay in Yemen mostly
Hundreds of Jews have ar- live in the capital, Sanaa,
rived in Israel from Yemen in where they dwell in a
recent years, but the most closed compound next to
recent arrivals could mark the U.S. embassy and enjoy
the end of this immigration. the protection of Yemeni
The 50 remaining Jews in authorities, the agency
Yemen want to stay in the said.
country, the agency said. Some 50,000 Jews have ar-
“This is a highly significant rived to Israel from Yemen
moment in the history of since 1949 and have grown
Israel,” said Natan Sharan- to become an integral part
sky, the chairman of the of Israeli society.q
