AP INTERVIEW: Mali's secular rebels splinter

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A former colonel in the Tuareg rebel group fighting for an independent homeland in Mali’s north announced Monday he is leaving the movement because its goal of independence is unrealistic.

Col. Hassan Ag Medhi told The Associated Press he has quit the Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, known as NMLA, and created the splinter group Front for the Liberation of the Azawad, or FPA, which he says is neither pro-jihad nor pro-independence.