Fifth Battle of Gao

Shortly after midnight on the night of March 23 to 24, a group of Islamist fighters carried out a raid on the city of Gao. The attack was claimed by the MUJAO. The voice of the MUJAO, Umar Wahab, said that on "Saturday at midnight, nine mujahideen came to Gao. They attacked a camp of the Malian army. The Mujahideen will continue until the final victory." The city of Gao is defended by armies of Mali, Niger, and France based at the airport in Gao, and 160 soldiers of Guinea arrived in the city three days earlier. The shooting took place in north-east of the city. According to a Malian officer, the army made a sweep after the battle: "In the night from Saturday to Sunday, individuals made three shots from AK-47 rifles in the direction of a military camp in Mali Gao. Our men fought back vigorously. For us, it is very minimal. We can not even talk about attack." The attackers retreated and calm returned after the first shots, however the fighting resumed a few hours later in the morning. This time the jihadist attacked via river Niger. Another Malian officer, reached by telephone by the Chinese news agency Xinhua said, "We are under fire, the terrorists infiltrated the city and began to fire in the neighborhood yesterday, in East Exit town three kilometers from the airport and two camps where French forces are based. They are very numerous, we managed to push them back but they were pushed into to Ward 4, in the section on the route to Kidal." A correspondent for Reuters claims to have seen in the city four jihadists, including two armed with Kalashnikovs, a third with a grenade launcher RPG-7 and one dressed last in a bomb belt. After two hours of fighting, finally they pushed the Islamists out of Gao.