Officials unearth mass grave in Mali

A mass grave containing 21 bodies has been uncovered in Mali. Officials suspect they are those of soldiers loyal to the nation's ousted former president. Mali's chief prosecutor, Daniel Tessougue, said investigators have been searching for as many as 23 red beret soldiers who went missing after a military coup toppled the government of former president Amadou Toumani Toure in 2012, the BBC reported Wednesday. The coup was led by Gen. Amadou Sanogo, who charged Toure wasn't doing enough to fight Taureg Islamist rebels in the country's north. But the coup had the opposite effect, with the governing vacuum filled by an al-Qaida-backed power grab that forced a French-led incursion to restore order and fight off the insurgency. During the chaos, officials said Sanogo ordered the capture of soldiers loyal to Toure, known as red berets, fearing a counter-coup was in the works. Tessougue said men loyal to Sanogo had been captured and offered information allowing the mass grave to be unearthed, the BBC said. With a new government in place, Mali officials said they are seeking to demonstrate political control over the nation's military, which is in part what led to Sanogo's arrest last week.