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ALFELLAGA 171attentively, and in the event of an alert we should retreat in different groups behindthe hills. (...) If there were many vehicles we should let the first one pass since themen looked like the ground [were hidden] and the enemy could not suspectanything. Magdi, who died in this ambush (and who is the father of Bachir who youprobably know), called us, El Khader, Aghmadou and myself, to ask us to go to theopposite hill to dig trenches. That’s all. We went to the hill where we stayed untilthe morning. (...) We spent the night there and during afternoon prayers, Atiyoubserved as Imam. After prayers, someone ventured it was Atiyoub who withheld thevehicles from arriving. Everyone asked Atiyoub to do something to make thevehicles come. Atiyoub stood up from where he was praying, turned to the groupand said to them: “Is that all you want”? He wore a burnous, which he started to flaparound. Immediately someone said he heard the sound of a motor. The opinions onthis were divided until everyone saw a dust cloud. We directly dispersed and whenthe vehicles arrived some of us were on the hills and others were in the canyons. Thefirst vehicles that arrived were a Zil [truck] transporting soldiers, a Land Rover anda tank. The vehicles followed each other, the Land Rover first, the tank after it andthe Zil brought up the rear. El Khader and me, we hid behind the rocks. Weimmediately opened fire and the tank, which was hit, had turned around. (...) Whenthe tank was hit and turned around, many of us said to ourselves that it was returningto Kidal while really it had retreated to join the Zil that was following it. It took agood number of soldiers from the Zil on board while the rest had to march towardsour positions. Like a cow from which one tries to take away its calf, the furious tankattacked us. The sustained fire of our fighters seemed to have no effect. The tankfired until it killed two of our men. We were greatly upset by this loss. I stood up toobserve the tank at close hand and Inkatouf signalled to me that I should hide fromthe tank’s fire. Looking from above, I saw the heads of the soldiers lined up likemelons inside the tank, which was not closed. As the tank was open, its occupantswere well visible. I aimed my rifle and I took two down. One of the tank soldiersimmediately shouted to his chief and the tank withdrew and stayed immobile untilthe evening. (...) I had a Mauser of quality that day. 37Mohamed wan Daghada’s account exemplifies some Tamasheq concepts onwar and masculinity: Ruse; patience; trust in God; and bravery in the fight. Heexplains with great detail how the ifulagen set up a well-prepared trap for theMalian army. The trenches are not explained as a means of protection, but as away to lure the army into advance without suspicion. Then they sat in wait forthe army. When it arrived, the fighters had to withhold fire until the first vehiclehad passed. Before the fight, after normal prayers, the men invoked God’s helpin the fight to come. In fact, they longed for combat and invoked divine assistanceto make the enemy appear. At that moment, the army arrived and wassubsequently defeated. In this way, Mohamed shows that trust in God will berewarded. Combat is engaged and at this point ruse is abandoned for bravery.Mohamed gets up from his trench, despite heavy enemy fire and the warnings37Interview by Ibrahim ag Litny with Mohamed wan Daghada. Kidal, August 1994.Courtesy of Georg Klute.