WarSclerotic

BAMAKO, Mali — Jihadist gunmen angered by Chad forging ties with Israel killed 10 Chadian peacekeepers and injured at least 25 others in an attack on a UN camp in northern Mali on Sunday, one of the deadliest strikes against the UN mission in the West African country.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was “in reaction” to the visit to Chad by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Mauritanian Al-Akhbar news agency, which regularly receives statements from this jihadist group.

Netanyahu flew to Chad for a single-day visit Sunday, re-establishing ties with the Muslim-majority country after 47 years.

Netanyahu called the move ” a breakthrough into the heart of the Muslim world,” and lauded the fact that there was no opposition.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Chad’s President Idriss Déby speak at a press conference at the presidential palace in N’Djamena, Chad on January 20, 2018. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Israel has in recent years established or upgraded ties with a number of African countries, including with Guinea, which neighbors Mali.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned what he described as a “complex attack” on the peacekeepers camp in Aguelhok, in Kidal region and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

“Ten peacekeepers from Chad were killed and at least 25 injured,” said a statement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The gunmen struck early Sunday at the Aguelhok base 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Kidal and towards the border with Algeria, according to a source close to the MINUSMA mission.

“MINUSMA forces responded robustly and a number of assailants were killed,” Dujarric said, without specifying the toll.

Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the UN envoy for Mali, condemned what he called a “vile and criminal” attack.

“Peacekeepers of the MINUSMA force at Aguelhok fought off a sophisticated attack by assailants who arrived on several armed vehicles,” he said in a statement.

The attack “illustrates the determination of the terrorists to sow chaos.

“It demands a robust, immediate and concerted response from all forces to destroy the peril of terrorism in the Sahel.”

Mali Islamist violence

On Sunday, France’s Defense Minister Florence Parly told French radio that the G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force in the region was resuming its operations.

They were suspended after an attack on their headquarters in mid-2018. The G5 force comprises contingents from Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad.

An attack at the same base last April killed two peacekeepers and left several others wounded.

UN peacekeepers salute during a memorial service for two colleagues who were killed in an attack on the UN compound in Juba, South Sudan, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. (AP/United Nations Mission in South Sudan)

In October 2014, nine troops of a Nigerian contingent were killed in the northeast.

Some 13,000 peacekeepers are deployed in Mali as part of a UN mission.

It was established after Islamist militias seized the north of the country in 2012. They were pushed back by French troops in 2013.

A peace agreement signed in 2015 by the Bamako government and armed groups was aimed at restoring stability to Mali.

But the accord has failed to stop violence by Islamist militants, who have also staged attacks in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Earlier this month, both France and the United States criticized the authorities in Mali for their failure to stem the worsening violence.

On January 16, France threatened to push for more targeted sanctions to be imposed on Mali after hearing a UN official report on worsening violence in the West African country.

Washington renewed its warning that it would push for changes to the peacekeeping mission in Mali, possibly a major drawdown, if there was no progress.

In August, a panel of experts said in a report to the UN Security Council that inter-communal conflicts in the region were exacerbating existing tensions from clashes between jihadist groups and international and Malian forces.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

ABOVE SOUTH SUDAN — In an unprecedented move, Sudan on Sunday allowed an Israeli plane to cross over the air space it controls.

The flight, carrying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to Israel from a lightning visit to Chad, jetted over South Sudan, whose skies are under the control of the civil aviation authorities in Khartoum.

The flight came hours after Netanyahu lauded Israeli “inroads” with the Islamic world as he and Chadian President Idriss Deby resumed ties, and amid a reported diplomatic push to reach an understanding with Khartoum to allow Israeli overflights above Sudan to shave hours off flights to western Africa and Latin America.

Israel has friendly relations with South Sudan, but the country’s airspace is controlled by its northern neighbor, which does not have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

Sunday’s flight was the first time an Israeli aircraft was allowed to fly over South Sudan, officials in the prime minister’s entourage said.

South Sudan, which is predominantly Christian, gained independence from Muslim Sudan several years ago, and the two countries are still hostile to each other. However, South Sudan’s civil aviation remains under Khartoum’s control.

South Sudanese government forces ride on a vehicle, January 12, 2014. (AP/Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin, File)

The Prime Minister’s Office asked reporters who accompanied Netanyahu to Chad not to publish the flight over South Sudan before his plane landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport, presumably for security reasons and to prevent last-minute efforts to change the mind of the Sudanese authorities.

Shortly after takeoff, the captain announced that this was a “historic flight,” and that thanks to the shortcut the return flight would be about one hour shorter than the trip’s first leg.

Earlier on Sunday, the prime minister’s plane took a long detour en route to Chad, flying south over the Red Sea and then across Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic before entering Chadian airspace.

The flight path of Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane to Chad skirting Sudan, as seen on a screen inside Netanyahu’s plane, January 20, 2019. (Rraphael Ahren)

On the return flight, the El Al air craft flew from N’Djamena south to the Central African Republic but then turned eastward to cross over central South Sudan, from which it continued to Ethiopia and Eritrea to the Red Sea.

The flight path of Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane over South Sudan, as seen on a screen inside Netanyahu’s plane, January 20, 2019. (Rraphael Ahren)

Netanyahu had flown to Chad on Sunday to declare the resumption of diplomatic ties with the Muslim-majority country, together with Déby.

It was unclear whether Sudan’s decision to let Netanyahu’s jet fly over South Sudan was connected to Chad’s move Sunday. In November, Deby said during a visit to Israel in November that he would be willing to help Israel and Sudan negotiate forging ties.

Khartoum has said recently it was not changing its policy of forbidding Israeli planes from entering its airspace. Earlier this month, a Sudanese television station reported that Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir had refused an request by a Kenyan airline to use its airspace for a flight to Tel Aviv.

However, Sunday’s unprecedented flight may indicate that Khartoum is willing to show flexibility regarding flyovers of third states under the control of civil aviation authority.

Netanyahu, who also serves as foreign minister, has in recent years pushed to open more flight paths to the Jewish state, including a direct route to India over Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Israeli and South American officials recently agreed to open a direct flight between Santiago and Israel, though the plane would still have to skirt Sudan, adding several hours to the time in the air.

Sudan has in recent years moved away from the geopolitical influence of Iran, which officials in the West have seen as an opportunity for a diplomatic breakthrough.

In the past, Sudan allegedly served as a way-station for the transfer of Iranian weapons to the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. Israel has reportedly intercepted and destroyed transfers of weapons from Sudan bound for Gaza.

However, since it broke ties with Iran, Sudan is no longer perceived by Israel as a threat, but rather as a potential ally, amid a campaign by Netanyahu to forge open ties with more countries.

On Sunday, Israel added a record 160th country to the list of nations it has a relationship with, signing an agreement to resume bilateral ties with Chad.

Chad, a country of 15 million people, had severed ties in 1972 at the behest of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

“We are making inroads into the Islamic world,” Netanyahu declared Sunday at N’Djamena’s presidential palace, minutes before he signed the formal document sealing the resumption of diplomatic relations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Chadian President Idriss Deby meet at the presidential palace in N’Djamena, Chad, on January 20, 2019. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

“We are making history and we are turning Israel into a rising global power.”

A few moments later, at a briefing for the traveling press, Netanyahu said that Jerusalem’s increasingly robust ties with the Arab world helps Israel break the ice with Muslim-majority states in Africa that do not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

“This visit first and foremost teaches us about our standing in the Arab world,” Netanyahu said. “Not only that there wasn’t any opposition, but also, I say this unofficially, there was some support.”

He declined to say which countries expressed support for Chad’s decision to establish ties with Israel nearly 50 years after they were severed.

Israeli forces bombed targets belonging to Iran inside Syria early Monday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, as tensions on the northern border continued to skyrocket.

The IDF said at 1:30 a.m. it was “striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” and warned Syrian forces not to intervene.

“The IDF warns the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli territory or forces,” the army said in an exceedingly rare statement.

The attack came less than a day after Israel reportedly carried out a rare daylight strike on targets near Damascus, sparking Syria to fire a retaliatory missile at Israel, and ratcheting up concerns of a wider confrontation between Israel and Iran in Syria.

Syria’s state-run SANA news outlet claimed Monday morning that its air defenses had shot down a number of “hostile targets.”

Videos posted online appeared to show Syrian air defense missiles being launched.

SANA claimed the strikes had come from the direction of Lebanese airspace and said explosion were heard near Damascus.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, the airstrikes tageted Iranian and Hezbollah warehouses at Damascus airport and other locations in the south and west of the capital.

The Quds Force is Iran’s expeditionary unit inside the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Israel and others accuse of trying to gain a military foothold in Syria.

On Sunday, Syria shot a missile at Israeli territory, in apparent response to a rare daylight attack on targets in and around Damascus widely attributed to Israel.

Israel’s air defenses managed to down the surface to surface missile before it reached Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights, according to the military.

Signaling fears of a fresh attack on Israel, the army announced it would shutter the Mount Hermon ski resort on Monday. On Sunday, the popular site had remained open despite the missile attack nearby.

The IDF announcement regarding the strike Monday morning attack was nearly unprecedented, after years of maintaining a policy of strategic ambiguity regarding its air campaign against Iran gaining a military foothold in Syria.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials have seemingly become more open about Israel’s military efforts in Syria, even as the installation of more advanced Russian air defense systems and tensions with Moscow have complicated the campaign.

An Israeli army Merkava tank is loaded into a truck in the Golan Heights, on January 20, 2019. ( JALAA MAREY / AFP)

On Sunday Netanyahu appeared to confirm that Israel was behind the daylight strike while speaking to reporters in Chad.

“We have a permanent policy to hurt the Iranian entrenchment in Syria, and everyone who is trying to hurt us,” Netanyahu said. “This policy doesn’t change, whether I am in Israel or on a historic visit in Chad. It’s permanent.”

Local Syrian media said the targets of strike were in Damascus International Airport and in the town of al-Kiswah, south of the capital, both of which have been hit by Israeli attacks in the past. Last year, the Israeli military said bases near al-Kiswah were used by pro-Iranian militias. An Iranian weapons depot at the airport was targeted in an airstrike a week and a half ago, Israel said.

Israel typically refrains from commenting on individual airstrikes in Syria, but does generally acknowledge that it carries out raids against Iranian- and Hezbollah-linked targets in the country.

Israel in recent years has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran, which alongside its proxies and Russia is fighting on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

Massive Israeli airstrikes on Syria destroyed weapons stores and military positions belonging to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, a war monitor said Monday.

The Israeli military said early Monday it was carrying out strikes against Iran’s Qud’s Forces, in a rare statement on its military activities in Syria.

“The Israeli missiles managed to destroy weapons depots and military posts of the Iranians and the Lebanese Hezbollah in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport and the area of Al-Kiswah and Jamraya,” the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said.

The monitor said there had been casualties and extensive damage, without providing details. A news site in the southern Syrian city of Suweida reported that eight soldiers had been brought to a local hospital with injuries sustained during the Israeli strikes, including two who died.

There was no immediate confirmation of casualties from Damascus. Syria’s state-run media described the attack as “heavy” and said Israel had launched “consecutive waves of guided missiles.” However, it claimed the majority of the missiles were shot down.

“Our air defenses responded effectively to an Israeli air attack targeting the southern region and prevented it from achieving any of its objectives,”SANA quoted a military source saying.

The airstrike was the second attack on the airport and al-Kiswah in as many days, after a rare daytime attack attributed to Israel on Sunday morning. Both locations have been attacked by Israel in the past and are thought to house Iranian or Hezbollah assets.

“Warehouses containing weapons for Syrian regime ally Hezbollah and Iranian fighters are located in that area,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, said Sunday.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

Last year, the Israeli military said bases near al-Kiswah were used by pro-Iranian militias. An Iranian weapons depot at the airport was targeted in an airstrike a week and a half ago, Israel said.

Jamraya, which has also allegedly been attacked by Israel in the ast, is thought to house a military facility and scientific research center.

A Google Earth view of a Syrian scientific facility in Jamraya, near Damascus, before it was allegedly struck by Israeli warplanes in late January 2013. (photo credit: image capture from Google Earth)

The Israeli attack Monday morning was widely seen as a response to a surface to surface missile fired at Israel Sunday, apparently in retaliation for the earlier airstrikes.

Israel intercepted the missile near the Mount Hermon ski resort, but on Monday said it would shut the site, apparently signaling fears violence could continue to escalate.

For years, Israel has conducted airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria, which it considers threats to national security. However, those attacks typically take place under the cover of darkness.

The strike appeared to be the first major attacks carried out by the Israel Defense Forces since Aviv Kohavi took over as chief of staff last week.

The alleged strike Sunday came hours after a Syrian cargo plane touched down in the Damascus International Airport from Tehran, according to publicly available flight data. Israel and American defense officials have said these types of ostensibly civilian cargo planes are often used to transport advanced weaponry from Tehran to pro-Iranian militias, fighting in Syria, including the Hezbollah terror group.

Satellite image allegedly showing damage to buildings at Damascus International Airport caused by a May 11 Israeli airstrike, released by ImageSat International, on May 13, 2018. (ImageSat International)

Another flight from Iran, flown by Tehran’s Mahan Air carrier, was en route to Syria on Sunday afternoon, but turned back following the reported Israeli strikes, according to flight data. Mahan Air has been identified by defense officials as one of the cargo carriers suspected of ferrying war materiel from Iran to Syria. As a result, it is subject to sanctions by the US Treasury Department.