Mali arrests dozens of soldiers over alleged coup attempt against junta
Dozens of soldiers have been arrested in Mali accused of plotting to topple the country’s military leaders, sources say. The wave of arrests, which reportedly went on overnight and are expected to continue, reflect increased tensions within the military government, with reports that a jihadist insurgency in the north is gaining ground. The authorities have…
Dozens of soldiers have been arrested in Mali accused of plotting to topple the country’s military leaders, sources say.
The wave of arrests, which reportedly went on overnight and are expected to continue, reflect increased tensions within the military government, with reports that a jihadist insurgency in the north is gaining ground. The authorities have not commented on the arrests.
Initial reports indicated that Gen Abass Dembele, the former governor of the Mopti region and Gen Nema Sagara, one of the few women at the highest levels of the Malian army, were among those detained.
However, a source close to Gen Dembele told the BBC that neither of them had been arrested.
The source, who confirmed the ongoing arrests, told a BBC reporter in Bamako that he had just left Gen Dembele’s house and he was “doing well”.
The AFP news agency reported that the detained soldiers were allegedly planning to overthrow the government, citing multiple sources within the military and junta-backed transitional council.
“All are soldiers. Their objective was to overthrow the junta,” it quoted an unnamed lawmaker in the National Transition Council as saying.
He said there had been about “50 arrests”, while a security source said there were at least 20 arrests, linked to “attempts to destabilise the institutions,” AFP reports.
The arrests have reportedly been going on over a number of days.
They come amid political tension heightened by the junta’s crackdown on former Prime Ministers Moussa Mara and Choguel Maiga over accusations of harming the reputation of the state and embezzlement.
In May, the junta dissolved all political parties following rare anti-government protests, which Mara described as a severe blow to reconciliation efforts initiated by the military leaders last year.
The junta leader Gen Asimi Goïta, who seized power through two coups in 2020 and 2021, had promised elections last year, but these have never been held.
Mali has been fighting an Islamist insurgency since 2012 – one of the reasons given for the military takeover but attacks by jihadist groups have continued and even increased.
Alongside its neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, it has enlisted the help of Russian allies to contain the jihadist attacks in the region after breaking ties with France – but there has been no significant improvements in security.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday rubbished what he said were “implausible” and “comical” claims by the Indian Air Force chief that the country had shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one other military aircraft during clashes in May.
The comments are the first such statement by the Indian side three months after its worst military conflict in decades with its neighbour. During the conflict, Pakistan said it downed five Indian planes in air-to-air combat on May 7, later stating that figure as six. India’s highest-ranking general has also acknowledged that its forces suffered losses in the air, but denied losing six aircraft.
Speaking at an event in the southern city of Bengaluru, Indian Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh claimed: “We have at least five fighters confirmed killed, and one large aircraft,” adding that the large aircraft, which could be a surveillance plane, was shot down at a distance of 300 kilometres.
He alleged that most of the Pakistani aircraft were downed by India’s Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system. He cited electronic tracking data as confirmation of the strikes.
Singh did not mention the type of fighter jets that were downed, but claimed that airstrikes also hit an additional surveillance plane and “a few F16” fighters that were parked in hangars at two air bases in Sindh and Punjab. “This is actually the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill,” he insisted.
Responding to the claims in a post on X, the defence minister said: “The belated assertions made by the Indian Air Force chief regarding alleged destruction of Pakistani aircraft during Operation Sindoor are as implausible as they are ill-timed.
“It is also ironic how senior Indian military officers are being used as the faces of monumental failure caused by strategic shortsightedness of Indian politicians. For three months, no such claims were voiced — while Pakistan, in the immediate aftermath, presented detailed technical briefings to the international media, and independent observers recorded widespread acknowledgment of the loss of multiple Indian aircraft, including Rafales, by sources ranging from world leaders, senior Indian politicians to foreign intelligence assessments.”
Asif said that “not a single Pakistani aircraft was hit or destroyed” by India, adding that Pakistan took out six Indian jets, S400 air defence batteries and unmanned aircraft of India while “swiftly putting several Indian airbases out of action”.
He added that the losses on the Line of Control for Indian armed forces were “disproportionately heavier” as well.
“If the truth is in question, let both sides open their aircraft inventories to independent verification — though we suspect this would lay bare the reality India seeks to obscure. Wars are not won by falsehoods but by moral authority, national resolve and professional competence.
“Such comical narratives, crafted for domestic political expediency, increase the grave risks of strategic miscalculation in a nuclearised environment,” he warned.
The defence minister iterated that every violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would invite “swift, surefire and proportionate response, and responsibility for any ensuing escalation will rest entirely with strategically blind leaders who gamble with South Asia’s peace for fleeting political gains”.
Former envoy Dr Maleeha Lodhi said the Indian air chief’s claim was “laughable”, noting that it took him “several months to count the planes to make this ridiculous assertion!”
Meanwhile, Indian Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said when questioned about the matter: “The question we have after today’s information … when we had such a strong army and we were advancing then under whose pressure did you stop Operation Sindoor?”
American South Asia expert Michael Kugelman opined that “regardless of whether true or not, the timing of these claims, with US-India ties in crisis, is easy to understand.”
Pakistan, with the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) primarily operating Chinese-made jets and US F-16s, has previously denied that India downed any aircraft during the May 7-10 fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
New Delhi had previously claimed it had downed “a few planes”. United States President Donald Trump has echoed the figure of “five jets” shot down during the military confrontation, albeit without specifying which side’s craft he was referring to.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has faced scathing criticism from opposition parties for its lack of “political will to fight” during the May clashes and “failures” to prevent the Pahalgam attack.
The May conflict was sparked by New Delhi’s allegations against Islamabad, which were without evidence and strongly refuted by Pakistan, about a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam. After the May 7 combat and tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire.
France’s air chief, General Jerome Bellanger, has previously said that he has seen evidence of the loss of three Indian fighters, including a Rafale. The Indian Air Force has not commented on those claims.
Days after the air combat, The Washington Post, based on visual evidence analysed by experts, reported that at least two French-made Indian fighter aircraft were shot down by the Pakistan Air Force.
According to The Wire, India’s defence attache to Indonesia, Indian Navy Captain Shiv Kumar, while speaking at a seminar in June, acknowledged that the PAF downed the Indian fighters.
During his presentation at the event, Kumar had acknowledged the loss of Indian planes. According to Kumar, Indian fighter jets were “operating under strict political orders from the Modi government not to target Pakistani military installations or air defence systems”, The Wire reported.
“This self-imposed limitation by the government was intended to prevent escalation of conflict in a nuclear environment,” the outlet added, quoting the Indian officer.
India’s intelligence failure was central to the hour-long air battle between Pakistan and India, which led to the downing of Rafale aircraft by the Pakistan Air Force’s J-10 fighters using PL-15s missiles, according to a report.
Reuters interviews with two Indian officials and three of their Pakistani counterparts found that the performance of the Rafale wasn’t the key problem: central to its downing was an Indian intelligence failure concerning the range of the China-made PL-15 missile fired by the J-10 fighter. China and Pakistan are the only countries to operate both J-10s, known as Vigorous Dragons, and PL-15s.
The faulty intelligence gave the Rafale pilots a false sense of confidence that they were out of Pakistani firing distance, which they believed was only around 150km, the Indian officials said, referring to the widely cited range of PL-15’s export variant.
“We ambushed them,” the PAF official said, adding that Islamabad conducted an electronic warfare assault on Delhi’s systems in an attempt to confuse Indian pilots. Indian officials dispute the effectiveness of those efforts.
“The Indians were not expecting to be shot at,” said Justin Bronk, air warfare expert at London’s Royal United Services Institute think-tank. “And the PL-15 is clearly very capable at long range.” The PL-15 that hit the Rafale was fired from around 200km away, according to Pakistani officials, and even farther according to Indian officials. That would make it among the longest-range air-to-air strikes recorded.
Security forces killed 33 terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Friday, the military’s media wing said in a statement.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a large group of terrorists belonging to the “Indian proxy Fitna al Khwaraj”, were trying to infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border when they were detected by the security forces in the Sambaza area of Balochistan’s Zhob district on the night of August 7 and 8.
Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The statement added that the troops effectively engaged and thwarted their attempt to infiltrate, adding, “As a result of precise, bold and skilful engagement, thirty three Indian sponsored khwarij were sent to hell.”
A large cache of weapons, ammunition and explosives was also recovered, it added.
“The security forces of Pakistan remain resolute and unwavering in their commitment to defend the nation’s frontiers and to eradicate the menace of Indian sponsored terrorism from the country,” the statement concluded.
Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022. The country ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025.
Last month, 30 terrorists of an “Indian proxy” outfit were killed as they attempted to infiltrate through the Pak-Afghan border in Hassan Khel tehsil of KP’s North Waziristan district.
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