On July 4, 2009, clashes broke out between Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Malian forces near Araouane, Mali.

On June 11, 2009, AQIM jihadists assassinated Malian officer Lamana Ould Bou in his home in Timbuktu.

[1] Malian forces launched an offensive against AQIM in retaliation for the assassination on June 16, near Garn-Akassa, killing sixteen to twenty-six jihadists.

[2] On July 3, 2009, American intelligence alerted Malian officials to a drug trafficking convoy in rural northern Tombouctou Region.

Hamma Ould Mohamed Yahya, the Malian deputy commander in Tombouctou Region, organized a patrol of seventy men on twelve pick-ups to intersect the convoy.