GAO, Mali (Reuters) – Malian troops hunted house-to-house in Gao yesterday for Islamist insurgents whose attack inside the northern town at the weekend showed the risk that French forces might become entangled in a messy guerrilla war.
Sneaking across the Niger River under cover of darkness, the al Qaeda-allied rebels fought Malian and French troops on Sunday in the streets of the ancient Saharan trading town, retaken from the Islamists two weeks ago.
Malian Defence Minister Yamoussa Camara said three of the Islamist raiders were killed and 11 taken prisoner, while some Malian soldiers were wounded in the street fighting.
The brazenness of the rebel raid, which followed successive blasts by two suicide bombers at a northern checkpoint, was a surprise to the French-led military operation in Mali which had so far faced little real resistance from the Islamists.
“They took advantage of the two suicide attacks on Saturday and Sunday to infiltrate the town,” Camara told a news conference in Bamako.
“With young people desperate over their future, it is possible to take them and indoctrinate them to the point of sacrificing their own lives.”
A doctor in Gao’s hospital, Noulaye Djiteyi, said three civilians were killed and 11 wounded. The casualties were hit by stray bullets in the gun battle.
