BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's military announced on Friday that it has broken a rebel blockade around a strategic army base in the north as the West African country's junta battles a renewed offensive by separatists and al-Qaida-linked militants.
Anéfis is located between the separatist-controlled town of Kidal and the town of Gao, which is under the military government. Late on Thursday, separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, said they attacked a large convoy of reinforcements from the Malian army, their Russian Africa Corps allies and local militias, cutting off the base.
But on Friday, they acknowledged that they withdrew from the area after heavy fighting.
The army said that in the last 24 hours, “12 combat vehicles were destroyed and nearly 100 terrorists were neutralized.” It did not provide a latest casualty toll for the military, including at Anéfis.
The Malian army said in a statement on social media on Friday that a large logistics convoy of reinforcements arrived the previous night from Gao to Anéfis.
“Operations from the air and on the ground allowed" the military to retake the area "despite several ambushes by the terrorist armed groups of the JNIM, the FLA and their affiliates,” it said.
Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, FLA's spokesperson, said that “ultimately, we decided to withdraw so we could better organize ourselves.” He claimed Niger and Burkina Faso's militaries came to the aid of Mali's army.
“On our side, the toll is five dead and about 10 wounded," he added and claimed the militaries, including Russia's Africa Corps, suffered “many deaths.”
The army’s and the separatists' claims could not be independently verified.
Last week, FLA separatists targeted several northern towns, including the nearby Gao, and effectively put the military camp of Anéfis under a blockade, which the Malian army had been trying to break. The first convoy sent by the Malian army was ambushed last Sunday, FLA said. Images of what the rebels said was a downed helicopter and burned military trucks circulated on social media.
Mali has previously faced insurgencies by militants affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, as well as a separatist rebellion in the country’s north. The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali.
In April, the FLA and the regional al-Qaida affiliate JNIM launched some of heaviest attacks in over a decade, killing Mali's defense minister, Gen. Sadio Camara, in his home and taking control of several key northern towns.
Mali's junta is led by Gen. Assimi Goita.
Along with Mali, neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso have also been battling jihadis. Following military coups, the juntas in the three countries turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating Islamic militants.
But the security situation has worsened with a record number of militant attacks. Government forces and Russian fighters have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.
FILE - Mali's junta leader Gen. Assimi Goita attends the funeral of former defense minister Sadio Camara at the Military Engineering Parade Ground in Bamako, Mali, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Boubacary Bocoum, File)
HOUSTON (AP) — Three men inside a van who witnessed the fatal shooting of the driver by an immigration officer in Houston said the Mexican man was shot through a passenger window and that the officer was never threatened, a lawyer who has spoken with them said Friday.
The shooting Tuesday during an attempted traffic stop by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Houston has revived critical voices deriding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and how ICE operates. Immigration arrests around the country recently surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released no evidence to support the officer's story that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo ignored their commands and rammed into an ICE vehicle with his white van, or that the officer fired in self-defense.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia has said the acting director of ICE told her officers thought someone in the van, but not Salgado Araujo, had a final order of removal but did not share a name,
The officers were not wearing body cameras and neither ICE nor DHS have released photos, videos or other evidence from the scene.
Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old homebuilder who was shot and killed as he drove his crew to a construction site. His family said he had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed.
ICE detained the other three men in the van and they all told a lawyer that no officer was in front of the van or even in danger.
“After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they’re saying is the truth. I know that these agents — the agency — is going to try to cover it up,” attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said during a news conference.
Images of the van after the shooting appear to show no damage, he said.
ICE has not released the names of the detained men, but family members said they have been able to briefly talk with them. Salgado Araujo's brother was among those arrested.
Garcia said at the same news conference it was unsurprising that Salgado Araujo drove off when ICE tried to stop his vehicle, given that their vehicles were unmarked and had no lights.
“What would you do if you were being followed by someone and the cars were unmarked?” Garcia said.
ICE is pressuring the men to self-deport which would make it harder for them to share their version of events with investigators or others, said Juana Degollado, who said her stepfather Daniel Tirado Pantoja is among the detained men. She said he has no legal permission to live in the U.S. but has no criminal record.
“It is extremely important that we preserve the integrity of this investigation,” Balderas-Ibarra said. “That will all be out the window if they are deported.”
DHS said allegations that the men have been pressured to leave the country are “categorically false.”
DHS said Thursday that officers investigating a tip weeks earlier saw two white vans at the address of a target. While heading to that address Tuesday, officers saw a white van and someone inside who resembled the person they were looking for, the department said in a statement.
“No one in that van had warrants or any legal problem,” Degollado told the AP in a text message.
DHS said it will not release the officer’s name because they could face threats and violence and their family could be at risk.
DHS also has not responded to requests for other information, including how long the officer has worked for ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting is administrative leave. The department has taken a similar stance after previous fatal shootings involving its officers. Many local and state law enforcement agencies routinely identify and provide biographical details about officers involved in critical incidents.
Unlike some previous deaths involving federal immigration officers, few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since Salgado Araujo's death.
The League of United Latin American Citizens offered a $5,000 reward for video or other evidence but the positions of the vehicles means surveillance cameras in the area were blocked from recording the shooting, CEO Juan Proaño said.
Local prosecutors were not invited into the investigation by federal officials but have spent the past three days in the Houston neighborhood looking for surveillance footage and talking to witnesses, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said.
Teare said anyone with video or other information must share it with his office so the truth about the shooting can be determined.
“We will go to the ends of the earth to collect all the evidence, so that we can eventually let the public know what happened,” Teare said.
Salgado Araujo's family said they found out he was dead through the ICE statement instead of directly from the agency. Garcia said officers kept his belongings and sent him to the hospital where he died without including his name.
Brook reported from New Orleans and Foley from Iowa City, Iowa. Associated Press reporters Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C.; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.
Candles are lit during a vigil for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national fatally shot by a federal immigration agent a day prior, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Mark Felix)
Congressman Al Green reads a version of a letter he wrote during a press briefing outside the office of Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia in Houston, on Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)
Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia speaks during a press briefing regarding her conversation with Acting ICE Director David Venturella outside her office in Houston, on Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)
People march through the streets during a vigil for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national fatally shot by a federal immigration agent a day prior, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Mark Felix)
Neighbors cheer as marchers walk past during a vigil for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national fatally shot by a federal immigration agent a day prior, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Mark Felix)
A photograph of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is passed to the front during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
A woman holds a sign reading "ICE OUT OF HOUSTON" during a vigil for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national fatally shot by a federal immigration agent a day prior, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Mark Felix)
