BAMAKO - The Malian army on Saturday announced the capture of a leader from the Islamic State in the Grand Sahara and his bodyguard in northern Mali.

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

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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."