On January 19, 2013, the Mauritanian website saharamedias.net posted a communiqué by the Ansar Al-Din organization, which controls large parts of northern Mali (Azawad). The communiqué deals in detail with the fighting between the organization and the Malian and French forces. It states that Ansar Al-Din was compelled to renew its military activity after discovering that the Malian army meant to attack the city of Douentza with help from the French forces, and after all the initiatives to resolve the crisis peacefully were rejected with "total contempt" by the Malian government. The organization claims that it has killed over 50 Malian soldiers, downed two French helicopters and killed a senior French officer, while sustaining only eight casualties of its own....
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