[AFRICANEWS] Mozambique's army has killed two senior rebel leaders in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which is in the grip of an armed jihadist insurgency, it announced on Wednesday.
"Terrorist Abu Kital, who held the position of deputy operations commander for the Al Sunna Wall Jamat terrorist group,
| ...the old name of Islamic State Central Africa Province-Mozambique (ISCAP), whence they moved in 2015 from the Congo, following the probable death of their original emir Abu Yasir Hassan of Tanzania (aka Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim), who moved between Mocimboa da Praia and the Congo. Familiarly known as Al Shabaab-Mozambique because they got themselves trained in jihading by the Al Qaeda-linked Somali Sahboobs, they fund themselves through heroin, contraband, ivory, raiding, and selling the local girls into slavery... |
was rubbed out," the Mozambique Defense Forces (FADM) announced in a statement.
Another jihadist, Ali Mahando, who "held important responsibilities within the terrorist group", was also killed, they added.
Rich in natural gas, the Moslem-majority province of Cabo Delgado has been gripped for five years by an insurgency led by fighters linked to the Islamic State
 ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group. The fighting has claimed at least 4,737 lives, almost half of them civilians, according to the conflict-monitoring organization ACLED, and around a million inhabitants have fled their homes.
According to the FADM, the bandidos bully boys ambushed the soldiers, but one of their vehicles "overturned on a bridge and caught fire". The two rebel leaders were killed in the ensuing exchange of fire, and no soldiers were maimed, the same source added.
The army did not specify when the clash took place, but other sources said it had occurred on Tuesday.
Since July 2021, thousands of troops from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have been deployed to support the Mozambican army, and have since helped regain control of much of Cabo Delgado.
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