{"id":35694,"date":"2013-03-20T11:24:48","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T09:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=35694"},"modified":"2013-03-20T11:24:48","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T09:24:48","slug":"mali-conflict-al-qaeda-claimed-to-have-killed-french-businessman-africa-news-35694","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/mali-conflict-al-qaeda-claimed-to-have-killed-french-businessman-africa-news-35694\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali Conflict: Al-Qaeda claimed to have killed French businessman \/ Africa News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ALQD\"<\/a>Al-Qaeda’s North African offshoot has disclosed to a Mauritanian ANI news agency that it has killed a French businessman captured in Mali in 2011 long before the conflict.<\/h1>\n

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) told ANI that it killed Philippe Verdon on 10 March just two weeks ago in retaliation for France’s intervention in Mali.<\/p>\n

Mr. Verdon and another Frenchman were seized in the town of Hombori north of Mali close to the mountainous and the desert area as they were conducting their business.<\/p>\n

France intervened in Mali in January after al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened to march to the capital and take control of it after a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat has been staged by Capt. Amadou Sanogo last year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the French foreign ministry said it was trying to verify the report by the news agency\u2019s information from the Mauritanian Capital Nouakchott.<\/p>\n

Local reporters said that Philippe Verdon and Serge Lazarevic were said to be on a business trip when they were captured at their hotel in November 2011.<\/p>\n

AQIM claimed it was behind the kidnapping and published photos of the pair in captivity last year which seems the group had anticipated France\u2019s intervention long before the conflict.<\/p>\n

Besides Mr. Verdon, an estimated total of 14 French nationals are being held by Islamist groups in Africa ion various locations.<\/p>\n

France currently has 4,000 troops in Mali, who are assisting thousands of Malian, Chadian and other African Union troops to combat the militants.<\/p>\n

The French government intervened when a coalition of Islamist and separatist rebels, which had seized the north of the country last year, threatened to move on the capital Bamako.<\/p>\n

The Islamist groups had taken over major cities, including Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, and imposed strict Islamic law in the aftermath of a coup in March 2012.<\/p>\n

Since the intervention began, this territory has been recaptured but fighting is still continuing in Desert Mountains.<\/p>\n

France plans to withdraw its troops from Mali next month, with West African countries expected to take over in the run-up to elections due in July.<\/p>\n

Issaka Adams \/ NationalTurk Africa News<\/b><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al-Qaeda’s North African offshoot has disclosed to a Mauritanian ANI news agency that it has killed a French businessman captured in Mali in 2011 long before the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,80,63,1,118,14],"tags":[77153,43537,2815,48106,48102,48107,46626,48104,48103,36049,44888,44229,43580,48105,48108],"class_list":["post-35694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-africa","tag-al-qaeda-mali","tag-al-qaeda","tag-al-qaeda-islamic-maghreb","tag-al-qaeda-killed-french","tag-al-qaeda-killed-philippe-verdon","tag-aqim","tag-captured-french-businessman-mali","tag-french-businessman-mali","tag-mali","tag-mali-africa","tag-mali-conflict","tag-mali-french-troops","tag-north-africa-al-qaeda","tag-philippe-verdon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}