Bamako, June 29 -- The Malian army has announced the capture of a leader from the Islamic State in the Grand Sahara and his bodyguard in northern Mali.

In a statement on Saturday, the army said the arrests occurred during a clash in the Cha-Mane area, without identifying who were captured.

Intelligence operations enabled security forces to catch the terrorist off guard while he was assembling and coercing local residents as part of a forced awareness campaign, the statement said, noting that the captured leader is "of foreign nationality."

UNI/XINHUA BM

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from United News of India....