Quote Originally Posted by Stan View Post
Chowing,
Do you have a link to this source ?

To echo David's post, Gaddafi mercenaries are behind the coup in Mali and have nothing to do with AQ or BH. However, as was posted earlier, the flood of Libyan weapons is a valid concern to the Nigerian government as well as all of Africa.
Hold the phone on that one ... I think certain elements of the Malian military are behind the coup. The only argument they've put forward so far indicates that they blame the Malian executive for not equipping them properly to fight a northern Touareg insurgency - those Touaregs are the former Gaddafi mercs, not the Malian coup makers.

Now the Malian president has accused the Touareg insurgents of being backed by AQIM:

http://www.echoroukonline.com/ara/ar...808.html?print

And I suppose that is part of the reason why AFRICOM was training Malian forces. But I have no idea if the U.S. has concrete intel on AQIM-Touareg links or if this is just part of the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership to strengthen all friendly Sahel militaries to fight AQIM.