Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BAMAKO281
2009-05-11 16:08:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bamako
Cable title:  

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE: NO ONGOING MILITARY

Tags:  PTER PREL PINR PINS ASEC ML 
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VZCZCXRO1351
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHBP #0281 1311608
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 111608Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0308
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 0644
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000281 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2019
TAGS: PTER PREL PINR PINS ASEC ML
SUBJECT: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE: NO ONGOING MILITARY
OFFENSIVE AGAINST AQIM

Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako,
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000281

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2019
TAGS: PTER PREL PINR PINS ASEC ML
SUBJECT: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE: NO ONGOING MILITARY
OFFENSIVE AGAINST AQIM

Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako,
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

1.(SBU) Despite recent Reuters and local media reports to
the contrary, there are no indications of an ongoing
multilateral military offensive against AQIM in northern
Mali. On May 5 the Reuters news wire reported that Mali,
Algeria, Niger and Mauritania were poised to launch an
"imminent" military operation intended to "flush out Al Qaeda
militants" from northern Mali. The Reuters report cited an
article by the Algerian newspaper El Khabar. A separate
report stated that Algeria had delivered five cargo plane
loads of military aid to Mali. On May 9 Reuters reported
that the Malian military had "launched an operation aimed at
flushing out suspected Al Qaeda militants" in northern Mali
by sending three combat units to Kidal to track AQIM. Local
media in Mali subsequently reprinted, and expanded upon, this
report.

2.(U) El Khabar ran a similar story in December 2008,
claiming that Mali, Algeria, and Mauritania had launched,
with support from Burkina and Senegal, a major military
operation against AQIM in northern Mali. The December 2008
report also stated that Algeria had supplied Mali with
provisions and that Mali was amassing its forces in the north.

3.(C) The Algerian Defense Attache to Mali told DATT on May
7 that no offensive against AQIM in northern Mali was
underway. The Algerian DATT also said Mali does not have the
capability to conduct this type of operation. The Algerian
Ambassador told our British colleagues in Bamako the same.
Algeria did deliver one plane load of supplies - carrying
sleeping bags, tents, and flu vaccines - to the Malian
military in Bamako. There are no indications, however, of
any ongoing military operation in the north to target AQIM.
We leave assessments of the capacity of neighboring armed
forces to our Embassy colleagues in the region, but where
Mali is concerned it is clear that the Malian armed forces do
that have the capacity to undertake an offensive or
coordinated assault against AQIM. The Ambassador's May 8
conversation with President Amadou Toumani Toure (septel)
confirmed this assessment.

4.(C) While the Malian military continues to patrol northern
Mali - giving occasional chase to wayward AQIM elements such
as the group of four AQIM members captured by Malian army
Col. Mbarek ag Akli near Tessalit on April 26 - these patrols
are really a continuation of a prior operation focused
largely on the remnants of the Tuareg insurgency, which
continues to be the Malian military's number one security
focus.
MILOVANOVIC