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Adama Diarra / Reuters
Militiaman from the Ansar Dine Islamic group ride on an armed vehicle between Gao and Kidal in northeastern Mali, June 12, 2012.
Adama Diarra / Reuters
Militiaman from the Ansar Dine Islamic group, who said they had come from Niger and Mauritania, ride on a vehicle at Kidal in northeastern Mali, June 16, 2012.
The leader of the Ansar Dine Islamic group in northern Mali, Iyad Ag Ghali, has rejected any form of independence of the northern half of the country and has vowed to pursue plans to impose sharia law throughout the West African nation. Ghali's stance could further deepen the rift between his group and the separatist Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) as both vie for the control of the desert region.
Reuters reports: Mali, once regarded as a good example of African democracy, collapsed into chaos after soldiers toppled the president in March, leaving a power vacuum that enabled Tuareg rebels in the north to take control of nearly two-thirds of the country.
The uprising also involved a mix of local and foreign Islamists, and Western diplomats talk of the risk the region could turn into a "West African Afghanistan". Full story
Analysis: Mali: the world's next jihadi launchpad?
Editor's note: Top picture was taken June 12, but made available to msnbc.com today.
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the U.S. and allies will crush these islamic militia's that favor legalized domestic violence (Sharia Law) with the ultimate punishment for berating civilization and women... EVIL Islamic men!
We do have the greatest military in the world, but, and a big, BUT, no religious war has ever been won since the beginning of time, they continue on for hundreds of years. Yes they have been silenced for years but they always come back. When we realize this we can bring our boys home. The real reason for all these so called wars we are in is not weapons of mass destruction or the BIG BOMB, it is OIL, always has been, always will be. I gave part of my body to a war that was never won and now we hand them billions of dollars a year , meanwhile I try to survive on a $14.00 a week food allowance. I love my country and the USMC, but as I hit 60 I have become saddened at how I have been left to slowly die. I joined the Marines of my own free will so I should not complain, but when you are in terrible pain 24/7, it makes me not want the young men over in the middle east not to end up like me for a reason that is untruthful at best, but as a good Marine I say as I was trained "Semper Fi" my brothers in arms.