Ansar e Din release footage showing the capture of Azawad

[Afghanistan2010]

The Islamist group Ansar Dine says that despite battling alongside the main Tuareg rebels in northern Mali, it is against their declaration of independence and is simply fighting for Islam.

"Our war is a holy war. It's a legal war in the name of Islam. We are against rebellions. We are against independence. We are against revolutions not in the name of Islam," its military chief Omar Hamaha said, in a video obtained by Agence France Presse.

The footage shot in Timbuktu, the fabled northern city now controlled by Ansar Dine, showed armed rebels driving through dusty streets as wary locals looked on from the sidewalks.

In one street some shacks that had served as makeshift bars were in flames. Other scenes showed deserted and ransacked police stations and government buildings.

"Independence is Islam. That's the real independence. It's to implement sharia, from sunrise to sunset," said Hamaha.
"What we want is not Azawad. It's Islam! Islam!" Hamaha said in French to shouts of joy from a crowd in Timbuktu in scenes filmed on Tuesday and Wednesday.