An audio statement released on AQIM’s Twitter:

“[AAD] is combating a new horn from the horns of global disbelief, after the American horn was smashed on the firm rock of jihad. This horn is a result of the French Crusader campaign that brought all its knights and horses, and its slaves and its insane ones against the Shariah of Islam in this land.” He then says that his fighters are fighting to “push away the aggression of the French Crusader assailant.”Caleb Weiss, “Malian al Qaeda leader threatens France in audio statement,” Long War Journal, November 1, 2015, https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/11/malian-al-qaeda-leader-threatens-france-in-audio-statement.php.