November 3, 2007:
Although the terrorist amnesty program brought in about 2,000 men, several
hundred refused, and continued fighting. At least a third of these have died or
been captured in the last few months. Last week, several days of operations
near the Tunisian border, seventeen terrorists were killed and seven captured.
Large quantities of weapons and munitions were captured, along with documents.
This was a typical operation, with the detailed information on terrorist
hideouts coming from a captured terrorist. Just as frequently, information
comes from local civilians. This despite, or perhaps because of,
terrorists frequently killing any civilians they encounter in the hills or
forests.
October 31, 2007: Courts
sentenced ten Islamic terrorists to death, and twelve others to long prison
sentences. These kinds of sentences encourage many captured terrorists to tell
all they know about terrorist operations.
October 27, 2007: Just
on the other side of the Niger border, Tuareg rebels ambushed a patrol, killing
twelve soldiers. The army denied that report, saying a few troops were wounded
when their vehicle hit a mine. The rebels are a 2,000 man faction of the Tuareg
tribes, who refuse to accept the peace deal with rest of the Tuareg settled
for. Niger believes the rebels are supporting Islamic terrorists in the area,
if only for the money. The rebels also want a cut of the cash from Niger's
uranium mines. French controlled mines have been operating for years, and China
will begin mining operations soon.
