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Opération “Barkhane”

Joseph Cosgrove

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After a little more digging, I see that out of the 27 countries which use the Tabor, including Thailand, only the Ukraine is licensed to produce it. So thanks very much Snafu ! This is going to be a MUST watch video, lads !
 

SnafuSmite

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Thanks mate, unfortunately in my haste to get the video out, I completely forgot to mention that it is produced in the Ukraine.
Actually very interesting how the Ukrainians got the licenses, they essentially have licenses for the whole IWI catalog from Tavors, Jericho pistols, Galils and even the Galatz DMR. They are also the only manufacturer to offer the Tavor in 5.45x39 which is the Russian standard-issue service round. I suspect target market would be countries that have a lot of Soviet Bloc ammo and equipment, they have also developed an AR-15 derivative which uses 7.62x39(AK round). M4-WAC-47, ugly as sin.
DSC8681.jpg
 
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From FUNKER530:

“Four French troops were briefly arrested and falsely accused of an "assassination attempt" against President Faustin Archange Touadéraon on Feb. 21, 2022 at Bangui airport in Central African Republic. At the time of their arrest, the French soldiers were operating as the security detail for General Marchenoir, Chief of Staff of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). General Marchenoir was at the airport to board a flight to Paris at the time of the incident. France accused the Central African Republic of carrying out an intentional harassment operation against the UN mission at the behest of Russia. France is competing for influence over their former colony. The CAR government has relatively recently signed a security contract with the Russian Wagner private military company. Wagner has been a useful tool for Moscow to exert unofficial military power with plausible deniability. "The embassy deeply regrets this incident. It condemns its immediate instrumentalization on some malicious networks and the gross misinformation to which it gives rise," a French diplomatic representative wrote in regards to the incident.”

 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Received this from Ossie.O. Cheers mate.

Mali: military operation in Sahel kills more than 200, says army​

Figures provided by the government or armed groups remain difficult to confirm with poor access to conflict areas
A Mali army statement said that soldiers killed 203 militants in in Sahel’s Moura area.

A Mali army statement said that soldiers killed 203 militants in in Sahel’s Moura area. Photograph: Michele Cattani/AFP/Getty Images

Agence France-Presse
Sat 2 Apr 2022 04.19 BST


Mali’s army says that it has killed 203 militants in an operation in the centre of Sahel state, in an uptick in violence in the conflict-torn country.
The army said on Friday the nine-day military operation beginning on 23 March took place in Sahel’s Moura area – which it termed a “terrorist fiefdom”.

The announcement comes as numerous social media reports in Mali this week alleged that dozens of people, including civilians, had been killed in Moura.
But the army’s statement said that soldiers killed 203 militants, arrested 51 people and seized large quantities of weapons.
AFP was unable to verify the army’s claimed death toll or the social media reports.

A person holds a sign that reads 'Down with France, the French army' in a crowd of people
France announces military withdrawal from Mali after nine years
Read more

Poor access to Mali’s conflict areas and a relative lack of independent information sources means that figures provided by either the government or armed groups are difficult to confirm.
An impoverished nation of about 21 million people, Mali has struggled to contain a jihadist insurgency that emerged in 2012, before spreading to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Vast swathes of the country are myriad rebel groups and militias, and thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict.
Mali’s under-equipped army has also often been accused of committing abuses during the conflict.
According to a report seen by AFP, UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently warned the UN security council that Mali’s counter-terrorism efforts had “disastrous consequences for the civilian population”.
In its statement Friday, Mali’s army said it was guided by human rights and international law, and called for “restraint against defamatory speculations”.
The country has seen an apparent uptick in violence in recent weeks. The UN said on Friday that thousands of people fleeing fighting in Mali have arrived in Niger.
A day earlier, the UN peacekeeping mission, known as Minusma, said that security had “deteriorated considerably” in the border area with Burkina Faso and Niger.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Mali troops and suspected Russian fighters accused of massacre​

Published12 hours ago
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Malian soldiers
IMAGE SOURCE,AFP
Image caption,
Malian soldiers have been battling jihadists for the last 10 years
Harrowing accounts are emerging of Malian troops and suspected Russian mercenaries allegedly executing about 300 people in central Mali.
Residents told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the killings took place during an operation against militant Islamists over four days in late March.
Detained men were ordered to walk in groups of up to 10, before being summarily executed, HRW said.
"I lived in terror, each minute, each second thinking it would be my turn to be taken away and executed. Even after being told to go, I feared it was a trap," one man who witnessed some executions was quoted as saying.
"As I walked away, slowly, I held my hand on my chest, holding my breath, and waiting for a bullet to pass through my body," he added.
Mali's military admitted on Saturday that it had killed more than 200 militants in a "large-scale" assault on the "terrorist fief" of Moura.

The West African nation's junta denies that mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group are helping it fight the insurgents.
On Tuesday, Germany joined the US, France and the European Union to call for an independent investigation, involving the UN mission in the country, into what happened in the village of Moura, which is in Mali's central Mopti region.
In its statement, HRW said there had been a "deliberate slaughter" of people detained.
"The Malian government is responsible for this atrocity, the worst in Mali in a decade, whether carried about by Malian forces or associated foreign soldiers."
HRW described Moura as being under the "quasi-control" of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).
It quoted a local as saying that some of those killed "were really jihadists, but many others were killed simply because they had been forced by the same jihadists to cut their pants and grow their beards".

Others said the killings were ethnically based, with the Fulani, largely Muslim semi-nomadic herders known in Mali as the Peulh, targeted.

What happened?​

HRW said it had learned from 19 witnesses, including those from Moura and six other villages, that soldiers arrived by helicopter near the livestock market on 27 March and exchanged gunfire for some 15 minutes with about 30 Islamist fighters.
"Traders at the market and security sources said that several Islamist fighters, a few civilians, and two foreign soldiers were killed during this and another exchange of gunfire that day," HRW reported.
Malian soldiers and more than 100 members of a foreign force - identified by several sources as Russians - were then deployed to Moura for an operation that lasted for four days.
"After surrounding the area, the soldiers patrolled through town, executing several men as they tried to flee, and detaining hundreds of unarmed men from the market and their homes," HRW said.
"Over the four days, the soldiers ordered the detained men in groups of four, six, or up to 10, to stand up and walk for between several dozen and several hundred metres. There, the Malian and foreign soldiers summarily executed them."

Mali has been battling a decade-long insurgency that has affected millions of people, and has also engulfed out countries in the region.
French troops have played a major role in fighting the insurgents, but in February President Emmanuel Macron announced their withdrawal.
It followed a breakdown in relations with the military junta, which has been accused of increasingly turning to Russia for aid to fight the militants.
Mali is a former French colony, and maintained strong ties with France after independence in 1960.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Russians accused of staging French killings in Mali

The French military says it has filmed Russian mercenaries burying bodies outside a military base, corpses it says are being used as part of a campaign of lies against departing French troops.

The images, taken by a drone after the French had left the Gossi base in northern Mali, show what appear to be Caucasian soldiers covering bodies with sand.

A Twitter account, which the French military says was probably a fake created by the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, has already posted images of pixelated corpses buried in sand and held the French responsible for their deaths.

Russia has not commented on the French accusations.

Basically what it says is that when the French pulled out of their base in Mali, they were expecting something like this to happen. So they had drones flying over the site, on the French news you see the Malians and the mercs camping out the night before. There is even some footage of the mercs loading the bodies on to a truck. The next day you see some white people taking photos of the 'discovery'.
 
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Kronenberg

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Le petit caporal

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No more French troops in Mali as of today
The last detatchment left by Convoi terrestre and by Air.
Niger is the place to be at the actu
2 REI have 300 légionnaires there
 
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