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.