BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Drone strikes by Mali's military regime killed eight Tuareg rebel leaders in the town of Tinzaouatine in the north of the country, a rebel spokesman said Sunday. It was the first time since the start of the rebellion in 2012 that so many Taureg leaders have been killed in a single attack.

“Several synchronized drone strikes martyred some Azawad leader on December 1, 2024 in Tinzaouatine, near the Algerian border,” spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said in a statement.

Azawad is the term used by the separatists for northern Mali. The statement from the separatists lists the names of eight Tuareg chiefs, the best known of whom is Fahad Ag Al Mahmoud, Secretary General of the Gatia, a Tuareg armed group.

Later Sunday evening, the General Staff of the Malian armed forces confirmed the deaths of the rebel leaders, whom it described as terrorists, “in a special operation.” The military statement was broadcast on Malian national television channel ORTM.

“Clearly this is a major loss to northern Malian groups since among the victims there are key leaders who have been influential in their communities," said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan think tank. "However, it will further intensify the anti sentiment toward Bamako, and the setback doesn’t mean the fight is over.”

He said “the junta has demonstrated with these airstrikes that it is not afraid to use the air assets (drones) it acquired anytime it can."

The attack by Mali's military regime comes a day after the armed groups in the north announced they were merging into a single political-military entity, now called the Azawad Liberation Front. The new group’s mission is “the total liberation of Azawad and the formation of the Azawad Authority”, said Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the groups, in a press release dated Nov. 30.