Niger says a rebel leader killed in army operation

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Niger says a rebel leader killed in army operation

Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:56pm BST
By Abdoulaye Massalatchi

NIAMEY (Reuters) - A leader of Niger's Tuareg-led rebel movement was
killed when government troops backed by helicopters captured a rebel
position in the north of the West African state, a government army
officer said on Saturday.

Niger's defence ministry had announced on Friday the recapture by the
army of Tazerzait, at the foot of Mount Tamgak in the Agadez region, a
position which Niger Justice Movement (MNJ) fighters had attacked and
taken a year ago. It said 17 members of the rebel MNJ were killed in
Friday's army assault.

"We killed 17 armed bandits yesterday and among the dead was Asharif,
their vice-president, whom everyone knows deserted from the government
forces a year ago," the government officer, who asked not to be named,
told Reuters.

The MNJ's website, Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la Justice, lists Captain Asharif
Mohamed-Almoctar as the first vice-president of the insurgent group,
whose desert fighters have waged a rebellion since last year in the
uranium-producing northern Agadez region.

MNJ leaders are demanding greater autonomy for the region and a bigger
share of its mineral wealth for local people.

Without confirming Mohamed-Almoctar as a casualty, the MNJ said on its
website one of its unit commanders was "missing" after fierce fighting
around Tazerzait, in which it said 26 government soldiers and seven
rebel fighters were killed.

The MNJ said it had shot down a helicopter, one of two it said was used
by the government in its assault on Tazerzait. Niger's army said it
suffered no losses in the operation.

The latest fighting followed the release by the MNJ on Wednesday of four
French employees of the French nuclear group Areva it abducted on Sunday
in the northern uranium mining town of Arlit. The rebels said they had
seized the four to disprove the government's assurances that it could
protect foreign mining and oil investments.

President Mamadou Tandja's government, which dismisses the MNJ rebels as
bandits and smugglers of arms and drugs, has ruled out any negotiations
unless they first lay down their arms.

At least 200 rebels and 70 government troops have been killed in more
than a year of inconclusive fighting.

Encouraged by rising world prices for uranium, the radioactive fuel for
nuclear reactors, Niger hopes to become the world's no. 2 uranium
producer by 2011, thanks to new mines being opened by France's Areva and
the China Nuclear International Uranium Corp. (Sino-U).

Many other foreign companies have been awarded licences to explore for
uranium, gold, oil and other minerals in Niger.

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