A former Malian government official claimed responsibility Tuesday for embarrassing tweets from the president ’ s account which labelled the US assassination of Iranian commander

Qassem Soleimani as a “ fuck -up ” .

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita ’ s official Twitter account had posted Monday that “ no one is around to tell Trump that he committed a fuck – up ” by ordering the assassination.

Soleimani was killed on Friday in a US drone strike in Iraq ordered by President Donald Trump , triggering fears of a retaliatory strike and an escalation of conflict in the Middle East .

The Malian presidency account added that Trump “ threatens world peace and has made of the US a rogue state” .

The tweets, which have since been deleted , were widely shared .

But the government walked back from the comments on Monday night , saying the account had been “ temporarily pirated by ill -intentioned individuals” and calling the posts “ an unfortunate mistake ” .

The author of the affair turned out to be a former spokesperson for Keita , Tiegoum Maiga , who outed himself on his own Twitter account .

“ It was neither pirates , nor hackers , ( but) a regrettable handling error , ” he said .
Maiga , also the brother of former Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga , said he left his job in November but had forgotten he still had access to the president ’ s account .

His tweets were meant for his personal account and he had “ no desire to be a nuisance , ” Maiga said.

The US also suffered a PR fiasco on Monday , when it said a draft letter describing steps to move its military out of Iraq had been mistakenly sent out .

( AFP )

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