This handout picture taken and released on January 25, 2013 by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) shows French Foreign Legion's soldiers preparing to leave the Mopti military base. French and Malian troops advanced today on the key Islamist stronghold of Gao after recapturing the northern town of Hombori as the extremists bombed a strategic bridge to thwart a new front planned in the east. - AFP Photo
GAO: The number-three leader of the armed Islamist group that controlled Timbuktu in northern Mali until last week, Mohamed Moussa Ag Mouhamed, has been arrested near the Algerian border, sources said Sunday.
A Malian security source said the Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) leader was arrested by a rival armed group and taken to Kidal, the last bastion of rebels targeted by a French-led military operation.
The information was confirmed by a Kidal official, Abdoulaye Toure, though the two sources gave conflicting accounts on which of the region's rival groups had arrested him.
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