French embassy attacker claims links to al Qaeda
A man arrested Wednesday after exploding a gas cylinder at the French embassy
in the Malian capital Bamako claims to be a member of al Qaeda's North African
branch with a personal "hatred" of France. Two people were slightly injured in
the attack.
By FRANCE 24 (with wires) (text)
A Tunisian man who claimed to be an Al-Qaeda member exploded a gas cylinder in
front of the French embassy in Mali's capital Bamako on Wednesday, a police
source said.
"We are on the Al-Qaeda track," the source said. "The Tunisian we have arrested
told us he belongs to Al-Qaeda."
Police said the man belonged to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), which
experts believe has bases spread across Algeria, Mauritania and Mali.
Two Malians were slightly wounded by the blast.
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A source close to the investigation said the man had proclaimed a personal
"hatred" for France.
"He is a young man of 25 years, a Tunisian national. He has a personal hatred
for France," the source told AFP.
The source said the man came from "a Katiba", a camp of Islamist fighters in
the Sahara, but he did not seem to be an important member of the organisation.
The French foreign ministry confirmed the blast, but spoke of only one person
being wounded.
The ministry's deputy spokesperson Christine Fages said: "There was an
explosion that was not accidental in front of the French embassy which very
slightly wounded one person of Malian nationality among its staff.
"An inquiry is under way," she added, refusing to make any further comment when
asked if the French embassy had been specifically targeted and if the blast
might be linked with the detention of French hostages in northeast Mali by the
north African branch of Al-Qaeda.
AQMI is holding in the Sahara five French nationals, a Togolese and a Malagasy
who were kidnapped in September at Arlit, a strategic mining site of French
nuclear giant Areva in north Niger.
In August 2009 a young man blew himself up in Nouakchott, capital of
neighbouring Mauritania, near the French embassy lightly injuring two French
gendarmes and a Mauritanian woman. AQMI claimed the attack carried out by a
Mauritanian suicide bomber.
AQMI later again designated France as a target after a Franco-Mauritanian
operation last July 22 against an Al-Qaeda base in Mali aimed at freeing a
French hostage, Michel Germaneau, 78. But the operation failed and AQMI later
announced it had killed the hostage.
In Bamako the French high school announced late Wednesday that it would be
closed on Thursday.
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