Mali troops put down a deadly militant attack in the capital

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Mali troops put down a deadly militant attack in the capital

2024-09-18 10:32 Last Updated At：10:40

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali troops subdued the Islamic militants who attacked a military training camp and the airport in Mali’s capital Tuesday after gunbattles that killed some soldiers, authorities said. An al-Qaida-linked group claimed the attack.

The militants tried to infiltrate the Faladie military police school in Bamako in a rare attack for the capital before government troops were able to “neutralize” the attackers, army Chief of Staff Oumar Diarra said on national TV, without elaborating.

At least 15 suspects were arrested, a security official who was inside the training camp at the time of the attack told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.

“This cowardly and perfidious attack led to some losses of life on the army’s side,” the army said in a statement read on national television in the evening, confirming that trainees at the military training camp were killed but not saying how many.

Mali's army also confirmed the militants targeted the airport, in the statement.

The al-Qaida-linked militant group JNIM claimed responsibility for the attacks on its website Azallaq. Videos posted by JNIM show fighters setting a plane on fire. The group claimed to have inflicted “major human and material losses."

An AP reporter heard two explosions in the area earlier Tuesday and saw smoke rise from a location on the outskirts of the city where the camp and airport are located.

Soon after the attacks, Mali’s authorities closed the airport, with Transport Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ould Mamouni saying flights were suspended because of the exchange of gunfire nearby. The airport reopened later in the day.

The U.S. Embassy in Bamako told its staff to remain at home and stay off the roads.

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russian mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Since taking power, Col. Assimi Goita has struggled to stave off jihadi attacks. Attacks in central and northern Mali are increasing. In July, approximately 50 Russian mercenaries in a convoy were killed in an al-Qaida ambush.

Attacks in the capital of Bamako are rare, however.

“I think JNIM wanted to show they can also stage attacks in the south and in the capital, following the battle on the north near the Algeria border where Wagner suffered losses," said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which promotes democracy.

In 2022, gunmen struck a Malian army checkpoint about 60 kilometers (40 miles) outside the city, killing at least six people and wounding several others. In 2015, another al-Qaida linked extremist group killed at least 20 people, including one American, during an attack on a hotel in Bamako.

Tuesday’s attack is significant because it showed that JNIM has the ability to stage a large-scale attack, Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, told the AP.

It also shows they are concentrating on military targets, rather than random attacks on civilians, he said.

Mednick reported from Goma, Congo, and Banchereau from Dakar, Senegal.

What to know as Florida residents begin cleaning up after Hurricane Milton

2024-10-12 01:19 Last Updated At：01:20

Cleanup from Hurricane Milton was underway on Friday as residents returned home after the storm barreled across Florida, spawning tornadoes, knocking out power to millions, damaging homes and leading to hundreds of rescues.

At least nine people died in the storm, and there was significant damage in areas, but Milton wasn't as bad as had been feared. Flooding from Milton’s heavy rains was still causing problems though as rescues of people and animals stranded in rising waters continued.

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people to not let down their guard and to be aware of hazards, including downed power lines and flooded areas.

The storm roared into Florida mid-week as some communities were still dealing with damage from devastating Hurricane Helene two weeks ago. President Joe Biden was set to visit areas impacted by Milton on Sunday.

Follow The Associated Press’ coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.

Milton came ashore Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, a barrier island of white sand beaches on the Gulf Coast.

The storm made landfall about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of the Tampa Bay area, sparing the densely populated area a direct hit.

As the storm made its way across Florida to the Atlantic Ocean it downed power lines and trees and flooded some neighborhoods. Even before making landfall, it spawned deadly tornadoes.

In St. Petersburg, Milton toppled a crane working on a 46-story building and destroyed the roof of Tropicana Field, home to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team.

On Friday afternoon, over 2 million customers in Florida were still without power, according to poweroutage.us.

Officials were reporting at least nine deaths as of Friday.

Five people were killed when a tornado hit the Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on the Atlantic Coast, authorities said.

In Volusia County, a 79-year-old woman in Ormond Beach and a 54-year-old woman in Port Orange died after trees crashed into their homes, the sheriff's office said.

In Tampa, police said the body of a woman in her 70s was found Thursday morning under a large tree branch.

Maintenance worker Bruce Kinsler, 68, was killed in Polk County as he tried to clear a tree that had fallen into a roadway, a county official said. Kinsler was struck by a truck driven by a county employee who was arriving to help.

Human-caused climate change gave a significant boost to Milton, intensifying the storm’s rainfall by 20% to 30% and strengthening its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study.

World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, which is not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.

Climate change also boosted Helene’s wind and rain. The two storms made an otherwise unusually quiet hurricane season roar to life.

Three major theme parks in the Orlando area — Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld — all closed Wednesday as Milton approached but were reopening Friday.

Airports that had ceased operations as the storm neared were reopening as well. Orlando International Airport — the nation’s seventh busiest and Florida’s most trafficked — had resumed full operations by Friday, as had Tampa International Airport and Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.

The back-to-back hurricanes of Helene and then Milton have reshaped the U.S. presidential campaign, just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

Both Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump have been devoting part of their recent days to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort, and have seen their schedules jumbled.

After Helene, Trump and Harris separately went to Georgia and North Carolina, requiring campaign events elsewhere to be canceled. The hurricanes are also forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job.