2 months ago
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EXCLUSIVE REPORTING — The column of Malian government soldiers and Russian mercenaries from the former Wagner Group was advancing through a shallow valley in the southern Sahara desert in late July, several hundred miles north of the legendary caravanserai of Timbuktu, when a roadside bomb exploded, halting the troops and their vehicles.
What followed was a three-day battle, pitting Tuareg separatists against the Malians and their Russian protectors near the town of Tinzaouaten. When a sandstorm prompted a retreat, the Malians and Russians stumbled into an ambush by an al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militia group known as the JNIM, which has cooperated with the Tuaregs. Scores of Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers were killed, and several more were captured.
