Al-Qaeda 'manifesto' warns Mali Islamists about Sharia

PanARMENIAN.Net - A "manifesto" left by Islamists in Mali indicates that disagreements between them may have led to their defeat - so far - on the battlefield, BBC News said.

The document, published by a French newspaper, is said to contain advice by the head of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdel Malek Droukdel.

It criticises militants in Mali for implementing Islamic law too quickly and predicts France's intervention.

The document was found by journalists in Timbuktu, northern Mali.

The advice and instructions, said to be given by the Algerian Droukdel, revealed in the Liberation paper, are dated 20 July 2012 - four months after a loose coalition of al-Qaeda-affiliated groups and ethnic Tuareg fighters took control of northern Mali.

In the document, versions of which were earlier published by Associated Press news agency and French radio station RFI, Droukdel warns his subordinates not to implement Islamic law too quickly.

This advice, he said, was because the jihadist project in Mali is "a baby in its first days that is still crawling".

The highly unusual document is written almost in the style of a chief executive officer issuing instructions to his middle management.

The AQIM leader criticises his subordinates for allowing Islamists to destroy shrines they considered "idolatrous".