Iyad Ag Ghaly
Iyad Ag Ghaly | |
|---|---|
| Native name | إياد أغ غالي |
| Nickname(s) | The Strategist |
| Born | 1954 (age 70–71) Abeïbara, Kidal Region, French Sudan |
| Allegiance | MPLA Al-Qaeda |
| Branch | Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin |
| Battles / wars | Tuareg rebellion (1990–1995) |
Iyad Ag Ghaly (Arabic: إياد أغ غالي, sometimes romanised as Ag Ghali; born 1954), also known as Abū al-Faḍl (Arabic: أبو الفضل), is a Tuareg Islamist militant from Mali's Kidal Region. He has been active in Tuareg rebellions against the Malian government since the 1980s – particularly in the early 1990s. In 1988, he founded the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. In the latest episode of the Tuareg upheavals in 2012, he featured as the founder and leader of the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine.
Born in 1954 into a noble family of the Ifogha tribal group (an influential Tuareg clan in the Kidal region), his gift for strategic thinking allegedly earned him the nickname, the Strategist. In 2008, he was appointed as one of Mali's diplomats to Saudi Arabia.
Although he would eventually distance himself from music, Ag Ghaly was formerly a musician associated with the group Tinariwen.