Operation Serval and Omar Ould Hamaha were killed, while Mokhtar Belmokhtar fled to Libya and Iyad ag Ghali fled to Algeria. The operation is named after the medium-sized African wild cat species Serval. In January 2012, following an influx of weapons that occurred after the Libyan Civil War, Tuareg tribesmen of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) began a rebellion against Mali's central government. In April, the MNLA said it had accomplished its goals and called off its offensive against the government, proclaiming the independence of Azawad. In June 2012, the MNLA came into conflict with the Islamist groups
Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War Russian-speaking “Caucasian” (often led by Chechens) battalions of about 150 men each, the rank and file of those having been drawn from Russia′s North Caucasus and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Israel's military role in the Syrian Civil War has been limited and until 2017 officially not acknowledged, whereas Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war since 1948, albeit without major open hostilities after the 1973 conflict. Israeli official position had until 2017 been neutrality in the civil war in Syria. Until the March 2017 strike, Israel's reported attacks on targets inside Syria were