About 30 Malian soldiers have been killed as Anefis retreats, says a military commander Articles of Controversy

General Jean Elysee Dao said 60 others were wounded as the army recaptured the main town after nearly a week of fighting.

The Malian army has said that about 30 soldiers have been killed and many others have been injured in the operation to capture the town of Anefis in the north of the rebels.

Tuareg separatists and al-Qaeda-linked militants hijacked Anefis in their latest series of attack at the same time on military bases across the country on July 4.

On Friday, the army said it had captured the city, which is 100 kilometers from Kidal, after nearly a week of fighting.

“I mourn the loss of about 30 people, 30 martyrs who fell,” army chief General Jean Elysee Dao told state TV, adding that about 60 were injured, including some seriously.

“We also have about 60 casualties, including serious cases,” Dao said.

His comments came a day after the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) said it had lost some of its best fighters in the war against the army and its Russian allies, but had inflicted “the most casualties and casualties in its history in the region”.

The funds that are managed by the military have been fighting against a security, political and humanitarian issues for more than ten years.

The al-Qaeda-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin controls the country’s rural areas while the FLA wants to establish an independent state in northern Mali.

Although often at odds, fighters from the two groups or their leaders have sometimes joined forces to fight common enemies, namely the Malian government and its allies.

At the end of April, they were behind another series of coordinated attack It targeted areas in Mali, killing Defense Minister Sadio Camara and prompting militants to declare a siege around the capital, Bamako.