Mercenaries who fought for Gaddafi behind brutal coup in Mali



Last year Malian combatants who fought for Gaddafi, returned home and formed Tuareg-led rebel group - the Azawad National Liberation Movement



Soldiers say they are overthrowing the government because of its weak response and mishandling of the ANLM in the country's north



The presence of the al-Qaeda affiliate turns a local dispute into an international security issue



Mali's neighbours, the United Nations and world powers from Paris to Washington called for a return to constitutional rule

Soldiers announced that they had seized control of Mali yesterday in an angry reaction to the government's weak response to an uprising of Gaddafi fighters in the country's north.



They ousted the president just one month before he was due to step down at the end of his legal term and said on national television they were suspending Mali's constitution, dissolving its institutions and imposing a nationwide curfew.



The soldiers had complained that the civilian government had not done enough to combat a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists - Azawad National Liberation Movement - made up of Gaddafi fighters, who want to carve out a homeland in the country's northern desert.

Take over: Soldiers announced that they had seized control of Mali yesterday in an angry reaction to the government's weak response to an uprising of Gaddafi fighters in the country's north called the Azawad National Liberation Movement

They stated that the country is now under the control of the military's National Committee for the Reestablishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, or CNRDR and said they were suspending Mali's constitution and dissolving its institutions.

Mali, which supports Western counter-terrorist efforts in western Africa, has been under siege since Malian combatants, who had fought to defend the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, fled back home last year after his defeat.



They brought with them powerful and sophisticated weaponry and formed the most powerful Tuareg-led rebel group the region has known - the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA).

The current whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure who has overseen a decade of relative stability, is unknown but officials in his camp and diplomats said they believed he was being protected by a pocket of loyalist soldiers.



Mutinous soldiers said they would launch an attack on the parachute regiment they believe is protecting the president.



Toppled: They ousted the president just one month before he was due to step down at the end of his legal term and said on national television they were suspending Mali's constitution and dissolving its institutions

Angry response: The soldiers had complained that the civilian government had not done enough to combat a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists who want to carve out a homeland in the country's northern desert

Mutiny:The exact whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure, pictured here in November, is unknown but officials in his camp and diplomats said they believed he was being protected by a pocket of loyalist soldiers

'We will finish it this evening,' said one soldier at an abandoned fuel station in Bamako.

The MNLA rebels, have been fighting since mid-January for an independent north.

They have pushed government soldiers out of remote towns but had not yet threatened the regional capitals of Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao.



Mali's Tuaregs have long complained that they have been marginalised by the southern government and have staged several rebellions over the years.



Joined by young recruits and former rebels who had been integrated into the Malian army in recent years, the MNLA fighters took over several key northern towns in just two months.

Rebels pledged yesterday to take advantage of the chaos as senior civilian and military officials in northern regions were arrested by mutinous soldiers.



Sporadic gunfire rang out in Bamako late last night and the streets were largely deserted but mutinous soldiers moved around the capital on trucks, motorcycles and on foot.

A Malian officer in the northern town of Kidal said rebels had occupied the military camp in Anefis, 100 km (60 miles) to the southwest, after government forces withdrew.

'The army has pulled back to Gao,' a source in Timbuktu, another main town in the north, told Reuters, asking not to be named.



'There is no longer any military leadership. (The rebels) will take the towns in the north,' he said.



Focus: The coup is a major setback for one of the region's few established democracies in the volatile Saharan region and the presence of the al-Qaeda affiliate now turns a local dispute into an international security issue.

The coup is a major setback for one of the region's few established democracies in the volatile Saharan region and the presence of the al-Qaeda affiliate now turns a local dispute into an international security issue.



Even before the Tuareg rebellion, there was frustration in the West at Bamako's unwillingness to act against the al-Qaeda allies.

Now as the government seeks military support in its fight against the Tuareg rebels, a tougher line will be demanded.

Toure, 63, a former paratrooper who seized power in 1991, had gained the nickname 'Soldier of Democracy' in his West African state and had been preparing to cede power in April after an election.





Mali has been under siege since Malian combatants, who had fought to defend the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, fled back home last year after his defeat

Mali's neighbours, the United Nations and world powers from Paris to Washington called for a return to constitutional rule.



The regional decision-making body ECOWAS Commission said it would not recognise the junta.



The 7,000-strong army has for weeks sought better weapons to fight the rebels.



Captain Amadou Sanogo, president of the newly formed National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR), said the poor handling of the crisis in the north was mostly to blame for the coup.



Speaking to pan-African television station Africable, Mr Sanogo, who said he received training from U.S. Marines and intelligence, pledged not to remain in power but refused to give a timeframe for restoring civilian rule.



'Three months, 6 months, 9 months, it will depend on the structure that we put in place for me to go back to being a soldier. Someone else will do the rest,' Mr Sanogo said.



'We have come asking for decent living conditions and to be treated well ... we will fight for this,' he added.



Restoring state authority to the north was the priority, he said.



But, amid reports of arrests of ministers and other senior government officials, Mr Sanogo implied that those detained would face trial for alleged crimes.

'We are not killers. I am not a killer. But the moment was right and everyone will have to face charges before the appropriate authority,' he said.

The events that culminated in the coup began on Tuesday morning at a military camp in the capital, where Defence Minister General Sadio Gassama came for an official visit.



In his speech to the troops, the minister failed to address the grievances of the rank-and-file soldiers.



The rebellion has claimed the lives of numerous soldiers, and those sent to fight say they are not given sufficient supplies, including arms or food.



Recruits started firing into the air on Tuesday morning.



By afternoon, troops had surrounded the state television station in central Bamako, located in southwest Mali, yanking both the television and radio signals off the air for the rest of the day.



By last night, troops had started rioting at a military garrison located in the northern town of Gao, some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) away.

The government has not disclosed how many government soldiers have been killed. The toll is believed to be significant and in February, military widows led a protest, publicly grilling Toure on television over his handling of the rebellion.



On state television today the putschists announced a curfew starting at dawn until further notice and the closure of the airport.

