Tuareg rebels patrolling near their camp of Tigha, located in the north of Kidal. In March 2006, Malian army officer Hassan ag Fagaga, of Tuareg origins, defected from his post with a number of his men, also of Tuareg origins. On May 17 followed an attack on the Malian Army at Tin Zawaten, near the meeting of the Mali, Algerian, and Niger borders. On May 22, 2006, a number of former Tuareg rebels, including Hassan ag Fagaga and Ibrahim ag Bahanga, intensified their campaign with the simultaneous seizing of arms and material from the military bases in Menaka and Kidal, after which the assailants took to the former rebel bases from the 1990s in the Tigharghar mountains of the Kidal region. | Location: Adrar des Ifoghas, Mali. (Photo by Patrick ROBERT/Corbis via Getty Images)