ISIS Claims Responsibility for Killing 33 Malian Soldiers

FILE PHOTO: Troops from the Malian Armed Forces and French soldiers conduct a joint patrol during the regional anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane in Inaloglog, Mali, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Troops from the Malian Armed Forces and French soldiers conduct a joint patrol during the regional anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane in Inaloglog, Mali, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Killing 33 Malian Soldiers

FILE PHOTO: Troops from the Malian Armed Forces and French soldiers conduct a joint patrol during the regional anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane in Inaloglog, Mali, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Troops from the Malian Armed Forces and French soldiers conduct a joint patrol during the regional anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane in Inaloglog, Mali, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

ISIS’ West Africa affiliate claimed responsibility on Sunday for an ambush last week that killed 33 Malian soldiers in the country’s volatile north, according to a statement published by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Fourteen soldiers were also injured in Tuesday's attack near the northern town of Tessit, located about 60 kilometers southeast of Ansongo in the Gao region, near the border with Niger, according to Mali's army.

The military earlier said that the UN peacekeeping mission known as MINUSMA helped evacuate the wounded soldiers. Helicopters from the French mission in Mali known as Operation Barkhane also helped the Malian military secure the area in the aftermath, a statement said.

ISIS said in a statement on Sunday that its fighters captured three vehicles as well as weapons and ammunition, according to SITE.

The group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks on either side of the border that have killed dozens of Malian and Nigerien soldiers. It also carried out the 2017 ambush in the Nigerien village of Tongo Tongo that killed four American special forces troops and five Nigerien soldiers.



ICAN: Nuclear States Spent $100 Billion on Weapons in 2024

(FILES) A worker dismantles loudspeakers that were set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju on May 1, 2018. (Photo by KIM HONG-JI / AFP)
(FILES) A worker dismantles loudspeakers that were set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju on May 1, 2018. (Photo by KIM HONG-JI / AFP)
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ICAN: Nuclear States Spent $100 Billion on Weapons in 2024

(FILES) A worker dismantles loudspeakers that were set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju on May 1, 2018. (Photo by KIM HONG-JI / AFP)
(FILES) A worker dismantles loudspeakers that were set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju on May 1, 2018. (Photo by KIM HONG-JI / AFP)

Nuclear-armed states spent more than $100 billion on their atomic arsenals last year, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said Friday, lamenting the lack of democratic oversight of such spending.

ICAN said Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States together spent nearly $10 billion more than in 2023.

The United States spent $56.8 billion in 2024, followed by China at $12.5 billion and Britain at $10.4 billion, ICAN said in its flagship annual report, according to AFP.

Geneva-based ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in drafting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which took effect in 2021.

Some 69 countries have ratified it to date, four more have directly acceded to the treaty and another 25 have signed it, although none of the nuclear weapons states have come on board.

This year's report looked at the costs incurred by the countries that host other states' nuclear weapons.

It said such costs are largely unknown to citizens and legislators alike, thereby avoiding democratic scrutiny.

Although not officially confirmed, the report said Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Türkiye were hosting US nuclear weapons, citing experts.

Meanwhile Russia claims it has nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, but some experts are unsure, it added.

The report said there was "little public information" about the costs associated with hosting US nuclear weapons in NATO European countries, citing the cost of facility security, nuclear-capable aircraft and preparation to use such weapons.

"Each NATO nuclear-sharing arrangement is governed by secret agreements," the report said.

"It's an affront to democracy that citizens and lawmakers are not allowed to know that nuclear weapons from other countries are based on their soil or how much of their taxes is being spent on them," said the report's co-author Alicia Sanders-Zakre.

Eight countries openly possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons, although it has never officially acknowledged this.

ICAN said the level of nuclear weapons spending in 2024 by these nine nations could have paid the UN budget almost 28 times over.

"The problem of nuclear weapons is one that can be solved, and doing so means understanding the vested interests fiercely defending the option for nine countries to indiscriminately murder civilians," said ICAN's program coordinator Susi Snyder.

The private sector earned at least $42.5 billion from their nuclear weapons contracts in 2024 alone, the report said.

There are at least $463 billion in ongoing nuclear weapons contracts, some of which do not expire for decades, and last year, at least $20 billion in new nuclear weapon contracts were awarded, it added.