Mali president announces all-out war on al-Qaeda

Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure has announced "a total struggle against al-Qaeda" after recent deadly clashes and the execution of a British hostage, urging regional cooperation on the fight.

"This is a total struggle against al-Qaeda we're engaged in. I mean total. On the terrain, in the Sahel and Saharan strip, the Salafists and their accomplices in various traffics are our enemies," Toure told Agence France-Presse in a brief interview late on Monday.

Toure said that a summit of regional heads of state, which has been delayed several times, would send "a very strong signal" to all the armed bands in the Sahel, an arid territory stretching from Mauritania in the west to include southern Algeria, northern Niger and Mali.

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