BAMAKO, Mali — Rebel spokesmen confirm that fighting has resumed in northern Mali between Islamist extremists and Tuareg secular rebels.
Oumar Ould Hamaha, spokesman for the Islamist MUJAO rebels, told The Associated Press that the fighting between the two rebel groups resumed Monday. He said the town of Menaka is now in the hands of the Islamists.
But reached in Paris, Moussa Ag Assarid, spokesman for the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or NMLA, denied that the Islamists have won control of Menaka.
He said the secular Tuareg rebels are fighting the Islamists of MUJAO, as well as reinforcements from Al Qaida in the Islamist Maghreb who came from Timbuktu. Ag Assarid said the Tuareg secularists have fired on the Islamists and prevented them from entering Menaka Monday.
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