[Daily Nation (Kenya)] New fighting Friday and a crackdown on women for not wearing veils by Islamist Orcs and similar vermin in the Malian city of Timbuktu marred peace moves by two of the groups controlling the desert north who said they were ready for peace talks with Bamako.A Tuareg warlord said his National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) had launched an "offensive" to retake the key north-central region of Gao from beturbanned fascisti.
"Fighting broke out Friday morning near Ansango between fighters of MNLA and the MUJAO (the Al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa) as part of an offensive aimed at recapturing the Gao region," Moussa Ag Assarid, a high-ranking member of the group in charge of communication, told AFP.
A Burkina security source said the MUJAO attacked some MNLA fighters and "took a lot of prisoners and two vehicles. There were some dead."
MUJAO had seized control of Gao in June following battles that claimed 35 lives, leaving the MNLA with no city base.
The assertion of an "offensive" to take Gao came the same day as a high-ranking MNLA delegation announced along with Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine that they were prepared to go into peace talks with the government in Bamako.