Battle of Tinzaouaten | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Tuareg rebellion (2012) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Belligerents | |||||||||
Ansar Dine | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
50 | Unknown | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
1 killed 10 captured 37 defected | 1 killed | ||||||||
On 8 February 2012, rebel forces from the separatist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) attacked a military outpost in Tinzaouaten located near the Algeria–Mali border. The battle led to the capture of the commune by MNLA rebels. A Malian government statement was released the following day declaring a "strategic retreat" from its base in Tinzaouaten.[1] A Malian soldier was killed. Ten were captured and 37 defected and were retrieved by Algerian authorities.