Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

French military forces have killed the head of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, who was wanted for deadly attacks on US soldiers and foreign aid workers.
Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi was "neutralised by French forces", President Emmanuel Macron announced early this morning.

Turkey on Jan. 27 condemned a terrorist attack in Mali that killed at least 20 soldiers.

"We are saddened to receive the news that many soldiers lost their lives and injured in a terrorist attack on the Sokolo military camp in the Segou region of Mali," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the militants killed in a U.S. air strike in Libya over the weekend was a "high-ranking" official in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The strike on Saturday, the first against al Qaeda militants in Libya, killed "two terrorists" as part of efforts to deny militants a safe haven in the country's vast desert.

Seventeen people have been killed and eight wounded in a "terrorist attack" in the centre of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, the government says, reported BBC. 

Three gunmen opened fire on customers seated outside a restaurant, witnesses were quoted as saying.

Al-Qaeda's North African branch said its attack on a beach resort in Ivory Coast on March 13 that killed 18 people was revenge for a French offensive against Islamist militants in the Sahel region and called for its forces to withdraw. 

At least 20 people are reported to have been killed and other wounded in an Islamist attack in the city center of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

The four-star hotel is frequently used by westerners and United Nations staff, while according to witnesses speaking to media, about 100-150 people are believed to have been in the hotel and restaurant at the time of the attack.

Two United Nations peacekeepers and a civilian contractor were killed on Nov. 28 in a rocket attack on a U.N. base in northern Mali claimed by the jihadist Ansar Dine group, which the Security Council warned could be a war crime.

Mali declared a ten-day state of emergency following the hostage siege, which took place at a hotel in the capital Bamako on Friday.

Suspected Islamist militants had seized 170 people hostage in the Radisson Blu hotel in the centre of the capital before the building was stormed by security forces.

Al-Qaeda's North Africa arm has claimed responsibility for two attacks against the United Nation's MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Mali this week, the Mauritanian Al-Akhbar news agency reported May 31.