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| Battle of Elakla | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mali War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 France |
 Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown |
Djamel Okacha † Seifallah Ben Hassine † | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None |
11 killed Several prisoners[1] | ||||||
The battle of Elakla took place on February 21, 2019, between French forces of Operation Barkhane and al-Qaeda aligned Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.
After the creation of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin in 2017, a jihadist group that was the result of five Sahelian jihadist groups merging, French forces in Operation Barkhane aided Malian government efforts to fight the group. Djamel Okacha was a founding member of JNIM, and the second-in-command of the group.[2]
Barkhane forces launched an operation on the afternoon of February 21 after spotting three vehicles deemed suspicious moving throughout Tombouctou Region.[2] The French army launched drone strikes on the vehicles, before sending in ground forces, five helicopters, and an MQ-9 drone.[2] The aircraft took off at 1:13pm from Bou Djeheba, north of Timbuktu.[3] An hour later, one pick-up was spotted by the drones, before being joined by two more vehicles.[3] After a chase, two pick-ups stopped and surrendered after being shot at.[3] The ground forces chased the third truck, but were only able to catch it after a second group of commandos intervened as it tried to blend into civilians.[3] As the drivers felt trapped, they got out and shot at the French commandos, but were killed.[2]
The French government claimed 11 fighters were put out of action, including Djamel Okacha and his two main deputies.[4] Seifallah Ben Hassine, nom de guerre Abou Iyadh and leader of the Tunisian jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia, was also killed in the battle.[5] Okacha's death was confirmed by Sedane Ag Hita, another top member of JNIM, and later JNIM leader and founder Abdelmalek Droukdel.[6][7]
