Malian al-Qaeda hunter shot dead ( al-Qaeda in Africa )

BBC ^ | Thursday, 11 June 2009 12:27 UK 11:27 GMT, | BBC Staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A senior Malian military intelligence officer who was investigating al-Qaeda in North Africa has been shot dead in the northern city of Timbuktu.

Lt Col Lamana Ould Cheikh was gunned down at point blank range by two men in his own home.

Earlier this week Mali's president said the army had detained three members of the militant group, which last week said it had killed a British hostage.

The assassinated officer is thought to have been behind two of those arrests.

If al-Qaeda in North Africa carried out the shooting, as officials suspect, it would be the first time the group has successfully directly targeted an officer of the Malian security forces, say correspondents.

The lieutenant colonel was sitting in the living room and one of the men came in and said to the other: 'That's him'

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Mali is a country that is turning the corner on the past and trying to become a success story. I hope they can drive Al-Qaeda out of their country and continue to expand stability and freedom within their nation.

[SatinDoll]

This is hugely important, Ernest.

Mali is just south of Algeria and Morrocco. Both nations have been used by Palestinian and Libyan funded terrorists in past decades to infiltrate Europe via southern ports in Spain, France, and Malta, and once there conduct terrorist activities.

Murdering that officer was a big mistake. Now the strategic situation, probably already known to Western intelligence agencies, will have made it into higer public visibility.