The US Department of Defense (Pentagon) said yesterday that the army officer who declared himself responsible for Mali after he led a coup that toppled the president of the country - located in West Africa - this week received training from the United States.
A Washington Post report said that Colonel Asimi Guetta, who emerged on Thursday as head of the ruling junta; He has worked for years with US Special Operations Forces fighting extremism in West Africa.
Officers from the two countries - who spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly - said he had been speaking regularly with US forces and was attending US-led exercises.
According to the officers, Goetta - who also received training from Germany and France - headed the Special Forces unit in Mali in the troubled central region of the country, where fighters linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State established a stronghold that worried world leaders.
According to the Pentagon, Goetta participated in the exercises of the US West African Command known as Flintock, and attended a bilateral university seminar for joint special operations at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
For his part, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Anton T. Similroth, "The insurgency in Mali is strongly condemned, and conflicts with US military education and training." He added that the Malian Army will not receive any additional support from the United States until another review.
The newspaper pointed out that Guetta is the commander of the independent special forces battalion, which is one of the first lines of defense against extremists.
According to a former US Army officer who was close to him: Guetta expressed his frustration with his colleagues about the escalating violence in Mali, and sent videos of the burned villages via WhatsApp.
Guetta, who is in his forties, has spent most of his military life in areas where extremists are abundant, such as the northern deserts and the central garrison towns.
The newspaper indicated that the former coup leader in 2012, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, also received military guidance from the United States, including professional military education and basic training for officers.
The Washington Post concluded with what the US Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa, Peter Pham, said: Many of the soldiers participating in the current uprising are likely to have received training from the United States. "This is not surprising to anyone because we have a long-term partnership with their armed forces," he said of the training history.