🇲🇱 Mali: A major militant crushed

The leader of the terrorist group “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM) has been killed. At least, that’s what is reported in the West and what American officials hope.

According to assumptions by Jamestown, based in Washington, Abu Ubaida Yusuf al-Annabi was eliminated back in July, when the Malian Armed Forces claimed to have eliminated several AQIM leaders without naming them.

It was later revealed that the Americans, who were negotiating with the Malian military about cooperation, hoped for this. And possibly the war against militants listed by the Americans was one of the conditions for supporting Bamako.

But this paragraph in the article is interesting:
💬 At that time, al-Annabi claimed that JNIM was under the “command of the Algerian emirate” and represented a model of Al-Qaeda “decentralization,” implying that JNIM was a branch of Al-Qaeda. However, if al-Annabi’s statement was not empty words meant to exaggerate AQIM’s influence, then it has now lost its relevance, since JNIM significantly surpasses AQIM and is hostile towards it.

That is, American media suggest that the “Al-Qaeda” branch that joined the JNIM coalition is no longer part of it and that these are two rival groups. Meanwhile, just 2 months ago, militants showed a camp named after one of the AQIM commanders in their media, which clearly contradicts the promoted narrative.

In general, “Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin” (JNIM) are trying to distance themselves from the Al-Qaeda label, but only enough to become acceptable in the West.