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French army kills 11 militants in Mali

He said that “not everything is finished, the terrorist risk in this part of Africa remains high”.

“We will keep 1,000 soldiers who are carrying out counter-terrorism missions,” he added.

“We have operations targeting groups rebuilding on two fronts, firstly around Timbuktu and then in the Ifoghas mountains.”

Belmokhtar split from AQIM last year and launched the Signatories in Blood, masterminding a raid of Algeria’s In Amenas gas plant in which 38 hostages were killed in a four day siege.

Abou Zeid was credited with having significantly expanded AQIM’s field of operations to Tunisia and Niger, and for kidnapping activities across the region.

Mali has been the target of a series of attacks claimed by Islamist insurgents since France launched its military intervention in January last year.

The residual groups of fighters are no longer able to carry out coordinated assaults, but Malian soldiers are vulnerable to small-scale attacks, by Islamist groups and also by separatist rebels from the country’s Tuareg ethnic group.

Flags were flown at half mast in army barracks across Mali on Friday, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defence, in commemoration of the two year anniversary of a mass killing by Tuareg separatists which came to be known as the Massacre of Aguelhoc.

When the northern town of Aguelhoc was taken on January 24 2012, more than 90 soldiers and civilians had their throats slit or were shot in summary executions by the separatist Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad.

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The statement said special prayers for the dead were planned in the garrison town of Kati, 15 kilometres northeast of Bamako, as well as religious services on Sunday.

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