Related(?):
Yeah, it's what this thing is all about.
"French forces intervene in Mali" by Adam Nossiter and Eric Schmitt | New York Times, January 12, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali — The international standoff with Islamists controlling northern Mali took a decisive turn Friday, as French forces engaged in an intense battle to beat back an aggressive militant push into the center of the country.
Related: Moving on Mali
I was told it wasn't going to be until this fall.
Responding to an urgent plea for help from the Malian government, French troops carried out airstrikes against Islamist fighters, blunting an advance by hundreds of heavily armed extremists, according to French officials and General Carter F. Ham, the top US military commander in Africa. One French helicopter was apparently downed, he said.
The Pentagon is now weighing a broad range of options to support the French effort, including enhanced intelligence sharing and logistics support, but it is not considering sending US troops, Ham said.
The sudden introduction of Western troops upends months of tortured debate over how — and when — foreign nations should confront the Islamist seizure of northern Mali. The Obama administration and governments around the world have long been alarmed that a vast territory roughly twice the size of Germany could so easily fall into the hands of extremists, calling it a haven where terrorists were building their ranks and seeking to extend their influence.
Yet for months, the Islamists have appeared increasingly unshakable in their stronghold, carrying out public amputations, whippings, and stonings as the weak Malian army retreated south and African nations debated how to find money and soldiers to recapture the territory.
Yeah, that will really win people over.
All of that changed this week, when the Islamists suddenly charged southward with a force of 800 to 900 fighters in 50 to 200 vehicles, taking over a frontier town that had been the de facto line of government control, according to Ham and a Western diplomat. Worried that there was little to stop the militants from storming ever farther into Mali, France — for the second time in less than two years — intervened with guns and bombs.
‘‘French forces brought their support this afternoon to Malian army units to fight against terrorist elements,’’ President Francois Hollande said in Paris on Friday, noting that the operation would ‘‘last as long as necessary.’’
“The terrorists should know that France will always be there,’’ he added.
Sanda Ould Boumana, a spokesman for Ansar Dine, one of the Islamist groups that controls northern Mali along with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its allies, insisted in a phone interview that the militants had held their ground.
‘‘Some planes came and bombed some civilians,’’ he said. ‘‘A woman was killed. It’s a well-known scenario. There wasn’t even combat. Planes bombed a mosque. That’s it.’’
Boumana called the intervention ‘‘illegal,’’ saying the French had ‘‘come to support a bunch of murderers. That’s France, and that’s the West. We are not surprised.’’
Malian officials in the capital, Bamako, called the French military strike a welcome shift in the standoff.
‘‘It was evident that the Malian Army would never have been able to handle this,’’ said Tiebile Drame, a leading opposition politician. ‘‘The French intervention goes beyond what was hoped for. No one was expecting things would go this quickly. France had said it wouldn’t intervene, and Malians were hoping for a rapid intervention.’’
Why the Islamists provoked a military strike by capturing the village of on Thursday remained unclear. They were not facing a military intervention for many months....
We know why.
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"French warjets push back Malian rebels; Islamists retreat as West African force vows to act" by Steven Erlanger and Scott Sayare | New York Times, January 13, 2013
PARIS — French airstrikes in Mali pushed back Islamist rebels from a key village and destroyed a rebel command center, France said Saturday, as West African nations authorized what they said would be a fast deployment of troops to Mali in support of the weak government there.
France launched its campaign Friday, dropping bombs and firing rockets from helicopter gunships and jet fighters after the Islamist rebels who control the north of Mali pressed southward, overrunning the village of Konna.
The French, who had earlier said they would not intervene militarily but only help African troops, took action in response to an appeal by the Malian president.
France, the United States, and other Western nations have been increasingly anxious about the Islamists’ tightening grip on the north of the country, which they said was becoming a haven for militants, including those with links to Al Qaeda, who threaten not only their neighbors, but the West.
On Saturday, Admiral Edouard Guillaud, chief of staff of the French armed forces, said French forces had no plans to extend operations to northern areas controlled by the Islamists, but would expect to help African forces do the job when they arrive.
‘’The quicker the African mission is on the ground, the less we will need to help the Malian army,’’ Guillaud said. He said more military planes had been sent to Africa for possible use in Mali.
In a separate development Saturday, a French hostage rescue mission in southern Somalia failed, with the death of the hostage. At least 14 Islamists also were killed, the Associated Press reported.
French President François Hollande, in a brief, somber televised statement Saturday evening, said that two French soldiers had died in the mission and that the hostage, a French intelligence officer, was “assassinated” by his Islamist captors despite militants’ claims that he was still alive.
French officials had earlier been cautious about the fate of the hostage, an agent using the name Denis Allex, and had said that one soldier had died and another was missing.
My PRINTED PAPER says INTELLIGENCE agent!!!!!!
Yeah, we all know journalists are really spies.
French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that the rescue mission was unconnected to French military action in Mali, but Islamist groups holding up to eight French hostages in northern Africa have regularly threatened to kill them if the French intervened militarily on the continent.
The hostage in Somalia was abducted July 14, 2009 — Bastille Day — from a hotel in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. The French have said he was working as a security consultant to the transitional government.
Le Drian said France needed to act in Mali to forestall the collapse of the government there and the creation of another haven for radical Islamists with ties to terrorist groups. ‘‘The threat is the establishment of a terrorist state within range of Europe and of France,’’ he said.
Islamist militants have set up harsh rule under Shariah law in northern Mali in the nine months since the army fled the area. France has some 6,000 citizens in the country, a former French colony.
In beginning its intervention in Mali on Friday, France scrambled Mirage fighter jets from a base in neighboring Chad, as well as combat helicopters.
It also has sent hundreds of troops to help Malian forces on the front line, as well as to secure the capital, Bamako.
Before the French military’s move to enter Mali, the UN Security Council had agreed that European Union advisers and troops from the Economic Community of West African States would help Mali’s government win back the north. But both groups had been slow to deploy.
With the fall of Konna and the movement of the Islamist fighters south, ECOWAS said Saturday that it had authorized deployment of troops ‘‘in light of the urgency of the situation,’’ news reports said.
The ECOWAS commission president, Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, announced the new plan but he did not specify how many troops would be sent to Mali or give a deployment date. Also Saturday, the foreign minister of Mali’s neighbor, Niger, said that the country would send a battalion of 500 soldiers to fight alongside ECOWAS troops.
In the fighting Friday, one French helicopter pilot, Lieutenant Damien Boiteux, died from small-arms fire, Le Drian said. Le Drian said French forces, led by helicopter gunships, had driven the Islamists from Konna, but it remained unclear whether Malian forces had established control.
Konna is about 45 miles north of the major town of Mopti, a port city on the Niger River that the Mali government feels it cannot lose. It is a major base for the Malian military, and officials believe that if Mopti were to fall, the Islamists could potentially seize the rest of the country.
Ever notice they never do? The self-created phantoms can't hold any ground because they are nothing but agency assets and hit squads.
Sanda Ould Boumama, an Islamist group spokesman, said French intervention in Mali will have ‘‘consequences, not only for French hostages, but also for all French citizens wherever they find themselves in the Muslim world.’’
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"France expands airstrikes in Mali" Associated Press, January 14, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali — France claimed new successes in its campaign to oust Islamist extremists from northern Mali on Sunday, bombarding the major city of Gao with airstrikes targeting the airport and training camps used by the Al Qaeda-linked rebel group controlling the city.
France’s foreign minister also said the three-day-old intervention is gaining international support, with communications and transport help from the United States and backing from Britain, Denmark, and other European countries.
The French-led effort to take back Mali’s north from the extremists occupying it has included airstrikes by jets and combat helicopters on at least four northern towns, of which Gao is the largest.
Some 400 French troops have been sent to the country in the effort to win back the territory from the well-armed rebels, who seized control of an area larger than France after a coup in Mali nine months ago.
The action coincided with a failed French attempt Friday to rescue a hostage held by Islamic militants in Somalia.
President Obama acknowledged Sunday that US fighter jets provided backup support to the effort.
Meaning we are in there, folks.
The risky mission by French commandos ended disastrously after a gun battle with fighters from Al-Shabab militant network. The hostage, a spy identified by his cover name, Denis Allex, was presumed killed and a French soldier was reported missing.
How can we ever trust them again?
Obama said the US warplanes briefly entered Somali airspace but did not open fire and departed Somalia by 8 p.m. Friday, Washington time. He gave no other details.
In Mali, the French Defense Ministry said its fighter jets destroyed several targets near Gao, including training camps, infrastructure, and logistical depots that it said were bases for terrorist groups.
Residents of Gao confirmed that the targets included the city’s airport as well as the building that served as the base for the town’s feared Islamist police, which — in their adherence to a strict version of Muslim law — have carried out numerous punishments including amputating limbs of accused thieves.
Gao resident Abderahmane Dicko, a public school teacher, said he and his neighbors heard the jets screaming across the sky between noon and 1 p.m.
‘‘We saw the war planes circling. They were targeting the camps uses by the Islamists. They only hit their bases. They didn’t shoot at the population,’’ he said.
But the intervention has come with a human cost in the city of Konna, the first to be bombed on Friday and Saturday. The town’s mayor said that at least 10 civilians were killed, including three children who threw themselves into a river and drowned trying to avoid the falling bombs.
President Francois Hollande of France authorized the military operation, code-named ‘‘Serval’’ after a sub-Saharan wildcat, after it became clear that the advancing rebels could push past the defenses in the town of Mopti, the first town on the government-controlled side, which has the largest concentration of Malian soldiers.
The decision catapulted the world and Mali’s neighbors into a military operation that diplomats had earlier said would not take place until at least September. France’s defense minister said they had no choice because of the swift rebel advance.
US officials said they had offered to send drones to Mali and were considering a broad range of options for assistance, including information-sharing and possibly allowing limited use of refueling tankers. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain also agreed to send aircraft to help transport troops.
On Saturday, the body representing nations in West Africa announced that the member states would send hundreds of troops of their own, including at least 500 each from Niger, Burkina Faso, and Senegal, as well as from Nigeria.
What the Globe's web version whacked from my printed paper:
They will work alongside French special forces, including a contingent that arrived Saturday in Bamako to secure the Malian capital against retaliatory attacks by the al-Qaida-linked groups occupying Mali's northern half.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the military effort succeeded in blocking the advance that had prompted the intervention. "The Islamist offensive has been stopped," Fabius said on RTL radio Sunday. He sought to stress that the operation is gaining international backing, despite concern about the risks of the mission in a stretch of lawless desert in weakly governed country.
What shit!
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Related: Mali Islamists gain ground despite strikes
It's a total rewrite and I really no longer have the time. I mean, how many lies, distortions, obfuscations, and omissions do I need prove as evidence of s*** censorship?
"France braces for longer fight in Mali; Islamist rebels make gains despite airstrikes" by Steven Erlanger, Alan Cowell and Adam Nossiter | New York Times, January 16, 2013
PARIS — France carried out new airstrikes against Islamist fighters in central Mali, as Paris pledged Tuesday to commit more troops to a potentially protracted campaign against extremists pressing south from a jihadist state they have forged in the desert north of the country.
The assessment that the conflict could be long and perilous appeared to be reflected in a call by France on Tuesday for Arab support to bolster an African force to fight the insurgents.
“We — not just the French, but all nations — have to combat terrorism,’’ Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a visit to the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, announcing that donors would meet later this month, probably in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss financing an offensive against the rebels in Mali, Reuters reported.
‘‘Everybody has to commit to oneself in fighting against terrorism,’’ Fabius said. ‘‘We are pretty confident that the Emirates will go into that direction as well.’’
On Monday, the extremists overran the central village of Diabaly, just hours after Fabius said confidently that France had blocked ‘‘the advance of the terrorists,’’ accomplishing its first mission in the conflict.
How you like being lied to? And what is all this costing the austerity-laden French citizen?
But the French defense minister acknowledged that the military situation was different. A column of militants had pushed within about 50 miles of one of Mali’s largest cities, forcing France to evacuate its citizens in the area and bringing the Islamists a step closer to Bamako, Mali’s capital — closer, in fact, than they had been before French forces entered the fight.
Having entered the war quickly after an urgent plea from the Malian government, France now finds itself facing a well-equipped force of Islamist fighters — with little immediate help from its allies to overcome them.
French President Francois Hollande, who was also in the United Arab Emirates for a one-day meeting to discuss trade and the sale of advanced French Rafale warplanes, said Monday that French jets had ‘‘hit their targets’’ in overnight strikes on rebel forces, Reuters said.
‘‘We will continue the deployment of forces on the ground and in the air,’’ Hollande said. ‘‘We have 750 troops deployed at the moment, and that will keep increasing so that as quickly as possible we can hand over to the Africans.’’
French defense officials said the French force would be increased gradually to 2,500 soldiers, backed by armored vehicles.
Hollande said a deployment of troops from West African states, to be supported by the French military, could take a ‘‘good week.’’
For its part, the United States has long pledged logistical support but no troops. West African nations have promised 3,300 soldiers to fight alongside the Malian army, but they must be gathered, transported, trained, and financed, and there have long been concerns about their readiness for the task ahead.
The European Union has promised 250 military trainers to aid the Malian army but has yet to deploy them, a decision that may not come before a special foreign ministers’ meeting later this week.
Moreover, the French mission is an ambitious one. Beyond pledging to stop the Islamists from pushing ever deeper into Mali — a more challenging task in itself than French officials initially suggested — France has also vowed to help restore Mali’s territorial integrity, an apparent reference to driving the Islamists out of their vast, northern stronghold, an area twice the size of Germany.
Don't you French people love being lied to -- especially into a war? And it's the socialist Hollande?
Fabius said Sunday that the French engagement would last only a matter of ‘‘weeks,’’ but as French forces wait for their African counterparts to ready themselves, Hollande may find it hard to keep his vow not to use French ground forces in northern Mali.
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"French soldiers battle armed Islamists in Mali" by Adam Nossiter, Alan Cowell and Eric Schmitt | New York Times, January 17, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali — French soldiers battled the armed Islamist occupiers of a desert village in central Mali on Wednesday, a Malian army colonel said, in the first direct ground combat involving Western troops since France began its military operation here last week to help wrest this nation back from a militant advance.
The Malian colonel said his army’s ground troops had joined the French forces and ringed the village of Diabaly, which Islamist fighters had seized the day before. Now, he said, they were engaged in fighting to extricate the militants, who had taken over homes and ensconced themselves.
‘‘It’s a very specialized kind of war,’’ said the colonel, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ‘‘The town is surrounded.’’
But French officials have been cautious about saying exactly when the ground combat would begin. A senior French defense official confirmed Wednesday that about 100 members of the French special forces were approaching Diabaly, about 250 miles north of the capital, in an effort to halt an insurgent move south and reclaim the town. But the official refused to confirm that an assault was yet under way.
The ground fighting expands the confrontation between the Islamists and the French forces, who have previously conducted aerial assaults after President Francois Hollande of France ordered an intervention in Mali on Friday to thwart a broader push by Islamist rebels controlling the north of the country.
The broadening of the military conflict came as an Algerian government official and the country’s state-run news agency said that Islamist militants had seized a foreign-run gas field near the Algeria-Libya border, hundreds of miles away, taking at least 20 foreign hostages, including Americans, in retaliation for the French intervention in Mali and for Algeria’s cooperation in that effort.
Related: Algerian Aberration
The twin developments underscored an earlier acknowledgment from French officials that the military campaign to turn back the Islamists and drive them from their redoubts in the northern Malian desert would be a protracted and complicated one.
‘‘The combat continues and it will be long, I imagine,’’ the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Wednesday.
Sure didn't make it sound that way going in!
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"As French troops press attack in Mali, rebels digging in" by Rukmini Callimachi and Baba Ahmed | Associated Press, January 18, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali — French special forces inched closer to an Al Qaeda-held town, fighting erupted in another center, and army troops raced to protect a third, as the Islamist extremists controlling northern Mali ceded no ground Thursday, digging into the areas they already occupy and sending out scouts to widen their reach.
Banamba, a town 90 miles from the capital, Bamako, was put on alert overnight and a contingent of roughly 100 Malian soldiers sped there on Thursday after a reported sighting of jihadists in the vicinity, the closest the extremists have come to the seat of government of this West African country, officials said.
France has encountered fierce resistance from the extremist groups, whose tentacles extend not only over a territory the size of Afghanistan in Mali, but also another 600 miles to the east in Algeria, where fighters belonging to a cell in Mali stormed a BP-operated plant and took dozens of foreigners hostages, including Americans in retaliation for the French-led military operation in Mali. They demanded the immediate end of the hostilities in Mali, with one commander, Oumar Ould Hamaha, saying that they are now ‘‘globalizing the conflict’’ in revenge for the military assault on Malian soil....
You see what is happening here.
After a meeting in Brussels of European Union foreign ministers, Mali’s foreign minister, Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, said it was necessary to mobilize ‘‘the entire international community’’ to help Mali and the region.
‘‘What is happening in Mali is a global threat,’’ Coulibaly said at a press conference.
EU foreign ministers on Thursday approved sending a military training mission to Mali.
And they won the Peace Prize?
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Related: French forces in Mali deserve global support
What a surprise that my lying, agenda-pushing paper is all in favor!
"Islamists flee crucial Mali town" by Baba Ahmed | Associated Press, January 20, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali — Radical Islamists have fled a key Malian town on foot after French airstrikes that began after they seized Diabaly nearly one week ago, the Malian military and fleeing residents said late Saturday.
Malian military spokesman Captain Modibo Traore said Saturday evening that soldiers had secured the town.
The departure of the Islamists from Diabaly marks a success for the French-led military intervention that began Jan. 11 to oust the Islamists from parts of Mali.
Earlier in the week, the Malian military was able to retake another key town, Konna, whose capture had sparked the French intervention.
‘‘The Islamists began leaving the town on foot yesterday heading east,’’ said a Malian intelligence officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists. ‘‘They tried to hijack a car, but the driver didn’t stop and they fired on the car and killed the driver.’’
Speaking Saturday on French 3 television, Jean-Yves Drian, France’s defense minister, said his country now has 2,000 troops in Mali.
He said France ‘‘could go beyond’’ the 2,500 troops initially announced for Mali, and said that at full deployment, Operation Serval would involve some 4,000 troops in the region.
Meanwhile, France’s foreign minister said Saturday that ‘‘our African friends need to take the lead’’ in a military intervention to oust extremists from power in northern Mali, though he acknowledged it could be weeks before neighbors are able to do so.
Laurent Fabius spoke at a summit in Ivory Coast focusing on ways that African forces can better help Mali as France’s military intervention there entered its second week....
Neighboring countries are expected to contribute around 3,000 troops to the operation, which is aimed at preventing the militants who rule northern Mali from advancing further south toward Bamako, the capital.
While some initial contributions from Togo, Nigeria, and Benin have arrived to help the French, concerns about the mission have delayed other neighbors from sending their promised troops so far.
Funding for the mission is also an issue.
Fabius said that a donor summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Jan. 29 ‘‘will be a key event.’’
‘‘I am calling all partners of African development to come to Addis Ababa and to make generous contributions to this work of solidarity, peace, and security both for the region and the continent,’’ he said.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said Mali’s neighbors must work together to eradicate terrorism in the region. ‘‘No other nation in the world, no other region in the world, will be spared” if large swaths of the Sahel are allowed to become a “no man’s land,’’ he said.
At Saturday’s meeting, leaders were sorting out a central command for the African force, a French official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive security matters.
Mali once enjoyed a reputation as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies with the majority of its 15.8 million people practicing a moderate form of Islam.
That changed last March, following a coup in the capital which created the disarray that allowed Islamist extremists to take over the main cities in the distant north.
And allowed the West to have a pretext to enter!
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"Malian forces make gains to reclaim town from rebels" Associated Press, January 21, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali — Backed by French airstrikes, Malian forces appeared close to recapturing a key central town in Mali where bands of Al Qaeda-linked fighters had holed up, France’s defense minister said Sunday.
The French military has spent the last nine days helping the West African nation of Mali prevent the spread of a jihadist rebellion in its vast northern desert. The comments Sunday from Jean-Yves Le Drian, however, appeared to cast some doubt on local military claims that the town of Diabaly had already been recaptured from the Islamists.
The town of 35,000, which hosts an important military camp, was taken over by militants last week.
‘‘Right now, the town of Diabaly is not retaken,’’ Le Drian told France-5 TV. ‘‘[But] everything leads us to believe Diabaly is going to head in the positive direction in the coming hours.’’
The French military said its fighter planes and helicopter gunships had carried out a dozen operations in the previous 24 hours — half of them to strike ‘‘terrorist vehicles.’’ The report came late Sunday in a statement on the military’s website.
Also Sunday, French forces extended their deployment northward from the central town of Markala, reinforcing their presence in the towns of Niono and Mopti, said Colonel Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman.
The French statement said some 400 troops from Nigeria, Togo, and Benin had arrived Sunday in Bamako to help train an African force for Mali. Troops from Chad, who are considered hardened fighters familiar with the desert-like terrain of northern Mali, also arrived in Mali, Le Drian said.
Previously, Mali’s military had claimed the government was back in control of Diabaly — a potential breakthrough in the French-led campaign to oust extremists there.
There will be a lot of those.
The contrasting accounts were emblematic of the confusion in the embattled West African country, where French forces opened an air campaign on Jan. 11 and have been building up troop levels to help restore government control in central and northeast Mali.
The zone around Diabaly remains blocked off by a military cordon and it is not possible to independently verify the information.
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"French, Malians oust Islamists from town" by Rukmini Callimachi | Associated Press, January 22, 2013
DIABALY, Mali — French troops in armored personnel carriers rolled through Diabaly Monday, winning praise from residents of the besieged town after Malian forces retook it with French help a week after radical Islamists invaded.
The Islamists also have deserted Douentza, which they had held since September, said a local official, who added that French and Malian forces arrived there on Monday, as well.
The militants’ occupation of Diabaly marked their deepest encroachment into government-held territory, and Monday’s retaking of the town was a significant victory for the French-led intervention.
Diabaly fell into rebel hands Jan. 14. Residents said those who escaped fled on foot through rice fields.
‘‘We are truly really grateful to the French, who came in the nick of time,’’ said Gaoussou Kone, 34, head of a youth association. ‘‘Without the French, not only would there no longer be a Diabaly, there would soon no longer be a Mali.”
Islamists had seized Diabaly just days after the French began their military operation on Jan. 11. The offensive is aimed at stopping the radical Islamists from encroaching toward the capital in Mali’s south from their strongholds in the vast, desert north, where they have been amputating thieves’ hands and forcing women to wear veils for the past nine months.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from his country’s oldest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, opposed France’s intervention.
Speaking in Saudi Arabia, he said France’s actions would create a ‘‘new conflict hotspot’’ separating the Arab north of Mali from its African neighbors to the south. He said he would have preferred a ‘‘peaceful and developmental’’ intervention.
On Monday, about 200 French infantrymen supported by six combat helicopters and reconnaissance planes made their way to Diabaly.
The Masked Brigade, behind the hostage crisis in Algeria, threatened more attacks if France does not leave Mali.
That thing so reeks on an intelligence operation!
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"US transporting French troops, equipment to Mali; Rebel land taken, but gains may be difficult to hold" by Krista Larson and Baba Ahmed | Associated Press, January 23, 2013
SEGOU, Mali — American planes transported French troops and equipment to Mali, a US military spokesman said Tuesday, as Malian and French forces pushed into the Islamist-held north....
French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza on Monday to find that the Islamists had retreated from it, said a resident, Sali Maiga. ‘‘The Malian military and the French army spent their first night and the people are very happy,’’ Maiga said Tuesday.
A curfew went into effect at 8 p.m., and no gunfire or other incidents were reported overnight, he said.
In September, a convoy of pickup trucks carrying bearded men entered Douentza, and in the months that followed the Islamist extremists forced women to wear veils and enlisted children as young as 12 as soldiers in training.
French and Malian forces also took the town of Diabaly, which lies 120 miles west of Mopti, on Monday after Islamist fighters who had seized it a week earlier fled amid French air strikes.
The presence of Malian soldiers in the two towns marks tangible accomplishments for the French-led mission....
But there are grave doubts that the Malian army will be able to hold newly recovered territory without foreign support. The coup disrupted the chain of command, and Malian soldiers last year repeatedly gave up towns to the insurgents while putting up little, or no, fight.
While fighting raged on the ground in Mali, officials in Brussels discussed plans for the future....
A senior EU official in Brussels dismissed criticism that the bloc is doing too little. Taking territory is one thing; holding it is another — and that task, the official said, will fall to the Malian army. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of EU rules.
That means, the official said, that training and reorganizing the Malian army ‘‘is not something marginal, it’s something that’s right at the core.’’
In addition, Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union’s commissioner for international cooperation and humanitarian assistance, is currently in Bamako to discuss resuming financial assistance to the country. At issue: ways for the European Union to support public administration, both in Bamako and in areas that are retaken.
As rebel forces leave, the EU official said, they will leave a vacuum that will need to be filled quickly.
Also, a conference of organizations involved in Mali — including the ECOWAS group of West African countries, the African Union, and the United Nations — will likely be held in Brussels soon, perhaps Feb. 5, the official said. Also, a donor conference will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Jan. 29, seeking to raise about $400 million. Half of the money would go to ECOWAS and half to the Malians, the official said.
The European Union also plans to help with counterterrorism in Bamako, beefing up security of public buildings, not to mention its own offices, in Bamako.
Meanwhile, the US Air Force has flown five C-17 flights into Bamako, delivering more than 80 French troops and 124 tons of equipment thus far in an ongoing airlift operation, the Pentagon’s press secretary, George Little, said Tuesday. He said the United States is still considering a French request for US aerial refueling support.
We have on ground advisers!
"US transporting French troops, equipment to Mali; Rebel land taken, but gains may be difficult to hold" by Krista Larson and Baba Ahmed | Associated Press, January 23, 2013
SEGOU, Mali — American planes transported French troops and equipment to Mali, a US military spokesman said Tuesday, as Malian and French forces pushed into the Islamist-held north....
French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza on Monday to find that the Islamists had retreated from it, said a resident, Sali Maiga. ‘‘The Malian military and the French army spent their first night and the people are very happy,’’ Maiga said Tuesday.
A curfew went into effect at 8 p.m., and no gunfire or other incidents were reported overnight, he said.
In September, a convoy of pickup trucks carrying bearded men entered Douentza, and in the months that followed the Islamist extremists forced women to wear veils and enlisted children as young as 12 as soldiers in training.
French and Malian forces also took the town of Diabaly, which lies 120 miles west of Mopti, on Monday after Islamist fighters who had seized it a week earlier fled amid French air strikes.
The presence of Malian soldiers in the two towns marks tangible accomplishments for the French-led mission....
But there are grave doubts that the Malian army will be able to hold newly recovered territory without foreign support. The coup disrupted the chain of command, and Malian soldiers last year repeatedly gave up towns to the insurgents while putting up little, or no, fight.
While fighting raged on the ground in Mali, officials in Brussels discussed plans for the future....
A senior EU official in Brussels dismissed criticism that the bloc is doing too little. Taking territory is one thing; holding it is another — and that task, the official said, will fall to the Malian army. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of EU rules.
That means, the official said, that training and reorganizing the Malian army ‘‘is not something marginal, it’s something that’s right at the core.’’
In addition, Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union’s commissioner for international cooperation and humanitarian assistance, is currently in Bamako to discuss resuming financial assistance to the country. At issue: ways for the European Union to support public administration, both in Bamako and in areas that are retaken.
As rebel forces leave, the EU official said, they will leave a vacuum that will need to be filled quickly.
Also, a conference of organizations involved in Mali — including the ECOWAS group of West African countries, the African Union, and the United Nations — will likely be held in Brussels soon, perhaps Feb. 5, the official said. Also, a donor conference will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Jan. 29, seeking to raise about $400 million. Half of the money would go to ECOWAS and half to the Malians, the official said.
The European Union also plans to help with counterterrorism in Bamako, beefing up security of public buildings, not to mention its own offices, in Bamako.
Meanwhile, the US Air Force has flown five C-17 flights into Bamako, delivering more than 80 French troops and 124 tons of equipment thus far in an ongoing airlift operation, the Pentagon’s press secretary, George Little, said Tuesday. He said the United States is still considering a French request for US aerial refueling support.
We have on ground advisers!
--more--"
"Witness describes killings by Malian army" by Baba Ahmed and Krista Larson | Associated Press, January 24, 2013
DJENNE, Mali — Malian soldiers killed people accused of ties to radical Islamists at a bus stop around the time the French-led military intervention began, a witness said Wednesday, describing how soldiers shot the victims and threw their bodies into wells.
The account from the witness, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals, came the same day a French human rights group accused Malian forces of dozens of “summary executions” and other abuses as they confront extremists.
“They gathered all the people who didn’t have national identity cards and the people they suspected of being close to the Islamists to execute them and put them in two different wells near the bus station.”
The soldiers later poured gasoline in the wells and set the bodies ablaze, he said.
The man described seeing at least three people killed at the Sevare bus stop Jan. 10, a day before the French launched a military offensive.
The military blocked journalists from reaching Sevare on Wednesday, expanding its security cordon to Djenne. Reporters were turned away at checkpoints by soldiers, who cited the national state of emergency and concerns for the journalists’ safety.
On Wednesday, the International Federation for Human Rights called for the creation of an independent commission to look into the crimes.
The group charged that Malian forces were behind about 33 killings, including of ethnic Tuaregs, along the narrow belt between the government-controlled south and the north, which has been under the control of Al Qaeda-linked militants for months.
--more--"
"Mali Islamic group splits" by Lydia Polgreen | New York Times, January 25, 2013
SEGOU, Mali — Ansar Dine, one of the main Islamic militant groups fighting to control Mali, split in two Thursday when one of its leaders said in a statement published by Radio France Internationale that he would form his own group to seek negotiations to settle the country’s crisis.
The new group, which calls itself the Islamic Movement for the Azawad and is led by Alghabass Ag Intalla, a prominent leader of the Tuareg ethnic group, becomes at least the sixth group to be fighting in an increasingly complex battle to control northern Mali.
Azawad is a Tuareg term for the vast desert region.
Intalla was described on the French radio station as the heir to the traditional ruler of the remote and sparsely populated Kidal region in the northeast.
He was said to have been among Tuareg representatives who met with Malian diplomats in Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso, late last year. The talks were an attempt to resolve longstanding Tuareg complaints and get them away from Islamists from other countries, notably Algeria, who are operating in northern Mali.
According to Radio France Internationale, the splinter group was prepared to fight its former allies.
The split within Ansar Dine came after French airstrikes halted the southward advance of rebel groups trying to push toward the capital, Bamako.
French and Malian troops have retaken the central town of Diabaly, which was briefly occupied by an Islamist group.
They also claim to have cleared Konna and Douentza, but have not allowed journalists to visit.
--more--"
"French forces retake rebel stronghold in Mali; Northern site was controlled by Islamist group" by Lydia Polgreen | New York Times, January 27, 2013
KONNA, Mali — French forces took control of the Islamic rebel stronghold of Gao, the French government said Saturday, winning the biggest prize yet in the battle to retake the northern half of Mali.
Gao, which lies 600 miles northeast of the capital, Bamako, has for months been under the control of one of several Islamist groups seeking to overrun Mali. French warplanes have been pounding the city since France joined the fight at Mali’s request on Jan. 11.
And only one sentence reporting civilian dead all this time?
French troops took control of the city and handed it over to the Malian Army to secure, according to the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Soldiers from Chad and Niger are expected to arrive soon in Gao, Le Drian said in a statement. They will be part of a contingent of 1,900 African troops who have arrived in Mali to drive out the rebels, aided by the 2,500 French soldiers deployed here.
Gao’s mayor, who had fled to Bamako, returned on Saturday, Le Drian said. One of three major cities in northern Mali, Gao had been under the control of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a splinter group of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Al-Jazeera broadcast a statement from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group said it had withdrawn temporarily from some cities it held but would return with greater force.
Timbuktu, the fabled desert oasis, and Kidal, northeast of Gao, have been under rebel control, but little information has come from either place for the past 10 days because mobile phone networks have been down.
In Konna — which was overrun by Islamic fighters on Jan. 10, prompting France to intervene — a clearer picture began to emerge of the fighting. Residents and officials here said that at least 11 civilians had been killed in French airstrikes.
And likely a hell of a lot more!
Charred husks of pickup trucks lined the road into the town, and broken tanks and guns littered the fish market, where the rebels appeared to have set up a temporary base.
France’s sudden entry into the fray has left the United Nations and ECOWAS, the regional trade bloc, scrambling to put together an African-led intervention force to help retake the northern half of the country. Mali’s army, which has struggled to fight the Islamist groups, has been accused of serious human rights violations.
From Konna, it is easy to see why the Malian government pleaded for French help after the Islamist fighters took control of the town. Just 35 miles of smooth asphalt separate Konna from the garrison town of Sevare, home to the second-biggest airfield in Mali and a vital strategic point for any foreign intervention force.
Residents said their town fell to the rebels when 300 pickup trucks of fighters, bristling with machine guns, rolled in and pushed back the Malian troops who had been guarding the town after a fierce battle.
Baro Coulibaly fled her house along the main road into town, moving with her husband and six children to the relative safety of the town center, where they stayed with her in-laws.
They hunkered down for days, hearing the sound of French bombs and rebel bullets ricocheting around the mud-walled dwellings.
--more--"
"French and Malian forces advance on rebels; Troops driving to seize control of Timbuktu" by Steven Erlanger | New York Times, January 28, 2013
PARIS — Malian forces backed by French troops were advancing Sunday toward the crucial northern town of Timbuktu as they begin to deploy in the rebel stronghold of Gao, French officials said.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France said the French troops were “around Gao and soon near Timbuktu,” farther west. Timbuktu has been under the control of rebels and Islamist fighters for 10 months, though there are reports that many of the Islamist fighters have moved farther into the vast desert.
The French are also expected to move on to the large town to the north, Kidal, with the notion of clearing population centers and garrisoning them with allied African troops before the rains are scheduled to come in March.
That conjures up thoughts of strategic hamlets and concentration camps.
The capture of the main strategic points on Saturday in Gao represented the biggest prize yet in the battle to retake the northern half of the country. The French Defense Ministry spokesman, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, said Sunday morning on Europe 1 radio that Malian, Nigerian, and Chadian troops were now deploying in Gao after French special forces took the airport in Gao and a strategic bridge on Saturday.
“The taking of control of Gao, which has between 50,000 and 60,000 inhabitants, by Malian, Chadian, and Nigerian soldiers, is underway,’’ Burkhard said.
French air strikes had been pounding Gao since France joined the fight at Mali’s request on Jan. 11. Gao, 600 miles northeast of Bamako, the capital, had been under the control of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a splinter group of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Al-Jazeera broadcast a statement from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group said it had withdrawn temporarily from some cities it held, but would return with greater force.
In Washington, the Pentagon said Saturday that the United States would provide aerial refueling for French warplanes. The decision increases US involvement, which until now had consisted of transporting French troops and equipment and also providing intelligence, including satellite photographs.
Little information has come from the other two main cities under rebel control — Timbuktu, the fabled desert oasis, and Kidal, northeast of Gao — for 10 days because mobile phone networks have been down.
Konna was overrun by Islamist fighters on Jan. 10, prompting France to intervene.
Because of France’s sudden entry into the fray, the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States, the regional trade bloc known as ECOWAS, have been scrambling to put together an African-led intervention force that has been in the planning stages. The Malian army, which has struggled to fight the Islamist groups, has been accused of human rights violations.
Just 35 miles of asphalt separate Konna from the garrison town of Sevare, home to the second-biggest airfield in Mali and a vital strategic point for any foreign intervention force.
Residents said their town fell to the rebels when 300 pickup trucks of fighters, bristling with machine guns, rolled in and pushed back the Malian army troops that had been guarding the town.
Amadou Traore, 29, a tire repairman, said residents had heard that the Islamist rebels had surrounded the town before the attack, but he had been confident that the army would keep them at bay.
Residents said they heard that the fearsome Tuareg leader of the Islamist group Ansar Dine, Iyad ag Ghali, had led the attack on their town, but no one saw him. The rebels spoke many languages, the residents said.
--more--"
"Islamists flee Timbuktu as French-led forces move in; Islamists flee Timbuktu as French-led forces move in" by Krista Larson | Associated Press, January 29, 2013
SEVARE, Mali — Backed by French helicopters and paratroopers, Malian soldiers entered the fabled city of Timbuktu on Monday as Al Qaeda-linked militants who ruled it for nearly 10 months fled after setting fire to a library that holds thousands of manuscripts dating to the Middle Ages.
French Colonel Thierry Burkhard, chief military spokesman in Paris, said there had been no combat with the Islamists but the French and Malian forces did not yet control the town.
Still, there was celebration among the thousands of Timbuktu residents who fled the city rather than live under strict and pitiless Islamic rule and the dire poverty that worsened after the tourist industry was destroyed.
‘‘In the heart of people from northern Mali, it’s a relief — freedom finally,’’ said Cheick Sormoye, a Timbuktu resident who fled to Bamako, the capital.
Timbuktu, a city of mud-walled buildings and 50,000 people, was for centuries a seat of Islamic learning and a major trading center along the North African caravan routes that carried slaves, gold, and salt. In Europe, legend had it that it was a city of gold. Today, its name remains synonymous to many with the ends of the earth.
That's what they are there for.
It has been home to about 20,000 manuscripts, some dating to the 12th century. It was not immediately known how many were destroyed in the blaze, which was set in recent days in an act of vengeance by the Islamists before they withdrew.
Michael Covitt, chairman of the Malian Manuscript Foundation, called the arson a ‘‘desecration to humanity.’’
‘‘These manuscripts are irreplaceable. They have the wisdom of the ages and it’s the most important find since the Dead Sea Scrolls,’’ he said.
Related: The smuggled hard drives of Timbuktu
Virtually replaceable.
The militants seized Timbuktu in April and began imposing a strict Islamic version of sharia, or religious law, across northern Mali, carrying out amputations and public executions. Women could be whipped for going out in public without wearing veils, while men could be lashed for having cigarettes.
About two weeks after the French began their military intervention in Mali, French and Malian forces arrived in Timbuktu overnight, the French military spokesman said Monday.
‘‘The helicopters have been decisive,’’ Burkhard said, describing how they aided the ground forces who came from the south as French paratroopers landed north of the city.
But the French have said Mali’s military must finish the job of securing Timbuktu. And the Malians have generally fared poorly in combat, often retreating in panic in the face of well-armed, battle-hardened Islamists.
During their rule in Timbuktu, the militants systematically destroyed cultural sites, including the ancient tombs of Sufi saints, which they denounced as contrary to Islam because they encouraged Muslims to venerate saints instead of God.
The mayor said the Islamists burned his office as well as the Ahmed Baba institute, a library rich in historical documents.
‘‘It’s truly alarming that this has happened,’’ Mayor Ousmane Halle said by telephone from Bamako. ‘‘They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people.’’
Some manuscripts had been removed from Timbuktu or hidden away for safekeeping from the Islamists.
‘‘UNESCO is very concerned about the reports coming out of Timbuktu as to damage on cultural heritage there,’’ UNESCO chief spokeswoman Sue Williams said from Paris.
The destruction recalls tactics used by the Taliban in 2001 when they dynamited a pair of giant Buddhas carved into a mountain in Afghanistan. The Taliban also rampaged through the national museum, smashing any art depicting the human form, considered idolatrous under their hardline interpretation of Islam. In all, they destroyed about 2,500 statues.
Which is an interesting comparison because I tried to use it one to get a "gotcha" from my eastern religions professor. He then told me the real story: Taliban did it not out of intolerance, but protest. Damn UN wanted to spend millions on fixing the rocks while Afghan children starved to death. Never see that in your jewspaper, do you?
Mali’s Islamists still control the provincial capital of Kidal farther north and are believed to have dug a network of tunnels, trenches, and caves from which they can launch attacks.
C'mon! You don't really expect us to believe that s*** anymore, do you?
Related: French take Islamists’ last major Malian town
So much for hiding out in those caves and tunnels.
--more--"
Malians told them where you are:
"Mali residents turn over Islamists to military" by Jerome Delay and Krista Larson | Associated Press, January 30, 2013
GAO, Mali — Residents in Mali’s newly liberated city of Gao hunted down and beat suspected Islamist extremists who had not fled with their brothers-in-arms as Malian and French military forces closed in and retook the town.
Malian troops bundled the men into an army truck Tuesday, their hands bound behind their backs. For the better part of a year, the Al Qaeda-linked extremists had banned music, insisted women cover themselves, and began carrying out public executions and amputations in the towns of northern Mali that they controlled.
Now the Islamists’ control of the cities has slipped, with the provincial capitals of Gao and Timbuktu coming back under government authority in quick succession with the arrival of French and Malian troops. They also may have lost control of a third key city, Kidal.
France, the former colonial ruler, began sending in troops, helicopters, and warplanes on Jan. 11 to turn the tide after the armed Islamists began encroaching on the south, toward the capital.
French and Malian troops seized Gao during the weekend, welcomed by joyous crowds. They took Timbuktu on Monday. The Islamists gave up both cities and retreated into the desert.
Members of a youth militia, the Gao Patrolmen, went house to house hunting down suspected Islamic extremists. Abdul Karim Samba, spokesman for the group, said men were scouring the town for remnants of the extremist Islamist group known as the Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad.
Troops from Chad, one of the African nations sending soldiers to help restore Malian government control over the whole country, patrolled the streets, and French soldiers joined overnight patrols. The city market was slowly returning to normal.
--more--"
Yup, life is slowly returning to normal after reign of terror that turns of residents. Hell of a way to run a revolution, if you believe the propaganda press. Never mind the good guys abuses (they will investigate) or the continuing airstrikes because "signs of life were returning to normal, and where there was no visible presence of the Islamic rebels who imposed harsh rule for months." French were even greeted as liberators.
I'm told they may even leave by March if everything goes as planned, and of course it didn't. The "the Islamist militants may be creeping back toward their stronghold," but the French are leaving anyway -- even though it is just moving troops to other parts of the country -- as the Islamists make a surprise attack! But just as quickly, the French secure the town and AP (pffft) "found" Al-CIA-Duh's plans! What an absolute load of merde!
Meanwhile, 65 terrorists were reported killed as the fierce struggle continues, making it "too early to talk about a quick pullout."
Some sort of victory is needed:
"Chad claims Al Qaeda commander killed" by Dany Padire | Associated Press, March 03, 2013
"Sending troops this year to the West African nation of Mali gave Hollande a temporary boost in popularity — but record-high and still-growing unemployment matters more, as he found this week on a trip to reconnect with the electorate. Some polls indicate Hollande has the worst approval ratings of any French president since 1981"
2 arrested in French anti-terrorism probe
They had been under surveillance since November.
How do you say patsy if French?
"Witness describes killings by Malian army" by Baba Ahmed and Krista Larson | Associated Press, January 24, 2013
DJENNE, Mali — Malian soldiers killed people accused of ties to radical Islamists at a bus stop around the time the French-led military intervention began, a witness said Wednesday, describing how soldiers shot the victims and threw their bodies into wells.
The account from the witness, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals, came the same day a French human rights group accused Malian forces of dozens of “summary executions” and other abuses as they confront extremists.
“They gathered all the people who didn’t have national identity cards and the people they suspected of being close to the Islamists to execute them and put them in two different wells near the bus station.”
The soldiers later poured gasoline in the wells and set the bodies ablaze, he said.
The man described seeing at least three people killed at the Sevare bus stop Jan. 10, a day before the French launched a military offensive.
The military blocked journalists from reaching Sevare on Wednesday, expanding its security cordon to Djenne. Reporters were turned away at checkpoints by soldiers, who cited the national state of emergency and concerns for the journalists’ safety.
On Wednesday, the International Federation for Human Rights called for the creation of an independent commission to look into the crimes.
The group charged that Malian forces were behind about 33 killings, including of ethnic Tuaregs, along the narrow belt between the government-controlled south and the north, which has been under the control of Al Qaeda-linked militants for months.
--more--"
"Mali Islamic group splits" by Lydia Polgreen | New York Times, January 25, 2013
SEGOU, Mali — Ansar Dine, one of the main Islamic militant groups fighting to control Mali, split in two Thursday when one of its leaders said in a statement published by Radio France Internationale that he would form his own group to seek negotiations to settle the country’s crisis.
The new group, which calls itself the Islamic Movement for the Azawad and is led by Alghabass Ag Intalla, a prominent leader of the Tuareg ethnic group, becomes at least the sixth group to be fighting in an increasingly complex battle to control northern Mali.
Azawad is a Tuareg term for the vast desert region.
Intalla was described on the French radio station as the heir to the traditional ruler of the remote and sparsely populated Kidal region in the northeast.
He was said to have been among Tuareg representatives who met with Malian diplomats in Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso, late last year. The talks were an attempt to resolve longstanding Tuareg complaints and get them away from Islamists from other countries, notably Algeria, who are operating in northern Mali.
According to Radio France Internationale, the splinter group was prepared to fight its former allies.
The split within Ansar Dine came after French airstrikes halted the southward advance of rebel groups trying to push toward the capital, Bamako.
French and Malian troops have retaken the central town of Diabaly, which was briefly occupied by an Islamist group.
They also claim to have cleared Konna and Douentza, but have not allowed journalists to visit.
--more--"
"French forces retake rebel stronghold in Mali; Northern site was controlled by Islamist group" by Lydia Polgreen | New York Times, January 27, 2013
KONNA, Mali — French forces took control of the Islamic rebel stronghold of Gao, the French government said Saturday, winning the biggest prize yet in the battle to retake the northern half of Mali.
Gao, which lies 600 miles northeast of the capital, Bamako, has for months been under the control of one of several Islamist groups seeking to overrun Mali. French warplanes have been pounding the city since France joined the fight at Mali’s request on Jan. 11.
And only one sentence reporting civilian dead all this time?
French troops took control of the city and handed it over to the Malian Army to secure, according to the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Soldiers from Chad and Niger are expected to arrive soon in Gao, Le Drian said in a statement. They will be part of a contingent of 1,900 African troops who have arrived in Mali to drive out the rebels, aided by the 2,500 French soldiers deployed here.
Gao’s mayor, who had fled to Bamako, returned on Saturday, Le Drian said. One of three major cities in northern Mali, Gao had been under the control of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a splinter group of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Al-Jazeera broadcast a statement from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group said it had withdrawn temporarily from some cities it held but would return with greater force.
Timbuktu, the fabled desert oasis, and Kidal, northeast of Gao, have been under rebel control, but little information has come from either place for the past 10 days because mobile phone networks have been down.
In Konna — which was overrun by Islamic fighters on Jan. 10, prompting France to intervene — a clearer picture began to emerge of the fighting. Residents and officials here said that at least 11 civilians had been killed in French airstrikes.
And likely a hell of a lot more!
Charred husks of pickup trucks lined the road into the town, and broken tanks and guns littered the fish market, where the rebels appeared to have set up a temporary base.
France’s sudden entry into the fray has left the United Nations and ECOWAS, the regional trade bloc, scrambling to put together an African-led intervention force to help retake the northern half of the country. Mali’s army, which has struggled to fight the Islamist groups, has been accused of serious human rights violations.
From Konna, it is easy to see why the Malian government pleaded for French help after the Islamist fighters took control of the town. Just 35 miles of smooth asphalt separate Konna from the garrison town of Sevare, home to the second-biggest airfield in Mali and a vital strategic point for any foreign intervention force.
Residents said their town fell to the rebels when 300 pickup trucks of fighters, bristling with machine guns, rolled in and pushed back the Malian troops who had been guarding the town after a fierce battle.
Baro Coulibaly fled her house along the main road into town, moving with her husband and six children to the relative safety of the town center, where they stayed with her in-laws.
They hunkered down for days, hearing the sound of French bombs and rebel bullets ricocheting around the mud-walled dwellings.
--more--"
"French and Malian forces advance on rebels; Troops driving to seize control of Timbuktu" by Steven Erlanger | New York Times, January 28, 2013
PARIS — Malian forces backed by French troops were advancing Sunday toward the crucial northern town of Timbuktu as they begin to deploy in the rebel stronghold of Gao, French officials said.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France said the French troops were “around Gao and soon near Timbuktu,” farther west. Timbuktu has been under the control of rebels and Islamist fighters for 10 months, though there are reports that many of the Islamist fighters have moved farther into the vast desert.
The French are also expected to move on to the large town to the north, Kidal, with the notion of clearing population centers and garrisoning them with allied African troops before the rains are scheduled to come in March.
That conjures up thoughts of strategic hamlets and concentration camps.
The capture of the main strategic points on Saturday in Gao represented the biggest prize yet in the battle to retake the northern half of the country. The French Defense Ministry spokesman, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, said Sunday morning on Europe 1 radio that Malian, Nigerian, and Chadian troops were now deploying in Gao after French special forces took the airport in Gao and a strategic bridge on Saturday.
“The taking of control of Gao, which has between 50,000 and 60,000 inhabitants, by Malian, Chadian, and Nigerian soldiers, is underway,’’ Burkhard said.
French air strikes had been pounding Gao since France joined the fight at Mali’s request on Jan. 11. Gao, 600 miles northeast of Bamako, the capital, had been under the control of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a splinter group of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Al-Jazeera broadcast a statement from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group said it had withdrawn temporarily from some cities it held, but would return with greater force.
In Washington, the Pentagon said Saturday that the United States would provide aerial refueling for French warplanes. The decision increases US involvement, which until now had consisted of transporting French troops and equipment and also providing intelligence, including satellite photographs.
Little information has come from the other two main cities under rebel control — Timbuktu, the fabled desert oasis, and Kidal, northeast of Gao — for 10 days because mobile phone networks have been down.
Konna was overrun by Islamist fighters on Jan. 10, prompting France to intervene.
Because of France’s sudden entry into the fray, the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States, the regional trade bloc known as ECOWAS, have been scrambling to put together an African-led intervention force that has been in the planning stages. The Malian army, which has struggled to fight the Islamist groups, has been accused of human rights violations.
Just 35 miles of asphalt separate Konna from the garrison town of Sevare, home to the second-biggest airfield in Mali and a vital strategic point for any foreign intervention force.
Residents said their town fell to the rebels when 300 pickup trucks of fighters, bristling with machine guns, rolled in and pushed back the Malian army troops that had been guarding the town.
Amadou Traore, 29, a tire repairman, said residents had heard that the Islamist rebels had surrounded the town before the attack, but he had been confident that the army would keep them at bay.
Residents said they heard that the fearsome Tuareg leader of the Islamist group Ansar Dine, Iyad ag Ghali, had led the attack on their town, but no one saw him. The rebels spoke many languages, the residents said.
--more--"
"Islamists flee Timbuktu as French-led forces move in; Islamists flee Timbuktu as French-led forces move in" by Krista Larson | Associated Press, January 29, 2013
SEVARE, Mali — Backed by French helicopters and paratroopers, Malian soldiers entered the fabled city of Timbuktu on Monday as Al Qaeda-linked militants who ruled it for nearly 10 months fled after setting fire to a library that holds thousands of manuscripts dating to the Middle Ages.
French Colonel Thierry Burkhard, chief military spokesman in Paris, said there had been no combat with the Islamists but the French and Malian forces did not yet control the town.
Still, there was celebration among the thousands of Timbuktu residents who fled the city rather than live under strict and pitiless Islamic rule and the dire poverty that worsened after the tourist industry was destroyed.
‘‘In the heart of people from northern Mali, it’s a relief — freedom finally,’’ said Cheick Sormoye, a Timbuktu resident who fled to Bamako, the capital.
Timbuktu, a city of mud-walled buildings and 50,000 people, was for centuries a seat of Islamic learning and a major trading center along the North African caravan routes that carried slaves, gold, and salt. In Europe, legend had it that it was a city of gold. Today, its name remains synonymous to many with the ends of the earth.
That's what they are there for.
It has been home to about 20,000 manuscripts, some dating to the 12th century. It was not immediately known how many were destroyed in the blaze, which was set in recent days in an act of vengeance by the Islamists before they withdrew.
Michael Covitt, chairman of the Malian Manuscript Foundation, called the arson a ‘‘desecration to humanity.’’
‘‘These manuscripts are irreplaceable. They have the wisdom of the ages and it’s the most important find since the Dead Sea Scrolls,’’ he said.
Related: The smuggled hard drives of Timbuktu
Virtually replaceable.
The militants seized Timbuktu in April and began imposing a strict Islamic version of sharia, or religious law, across northern Mali, carrying out amputations and public executions. Women could be whipped for going out in public without wearing veils, while men could be lashed for having cigarettes.
About two weeks after the French began their military intervention in Mali, French and Malian forces arrived in Timbuktu overnight, the French military spokesman said Monday.
‘‘The helicopters have been decisive,’’ Burkhard said, describing how they aided the ground forces who came from the south as French paratroopers landed north of the city.
But the French have said Mali’s military must finish the job of securing Timbuktu. And the Malians have generally fared poorly in combat, often retreating in panic in the face of well-armed, battle-hardened Islamists.
During their rule in Timbuktu, the militants systematically destroyed cultural sites, including the ancient tombs of Sufi saints, which they denounced as contrary to Islam because they encouraged Muslims to venerate saints instead of God.
The mayor said the Islamists burned his office as well as the Ahmed Baba institute, a library rich in historical documents.
‘‘It’s truly alarming that this has happened,’’ Mayor Ousmane Halle said by telephone from Bamako. ‘‘They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people.’’
Some manuscripts had been removed from Timbuktu or hidden away for safekeeping from the Islamists.
‘‘UNESCO is very concerned about the reports coming out of Timbuktu as to damage on cultural heritage there,’’ UNESCO chief spokeswoman Sue Williams said from Paris.
The destruction recalls tactics used by the Taliban in 2001 when they dynamited a pair of giant Buddhas carved into a mountain in Afghanistan. The Taliban also rampaged through the national museum, smashing any art depicting the human form, considered idolatrous under their hardline interpretation of Islam. In all, they destroyed about 2,500 statues.
Which is an interesting comparison because I tried to use it one to get a "gotcha" from my eastern religions professor. He then told me the real story: Taliban did it not out of intolerance, but protest. Damn UN wanted to spend millions on fixing the rocks while Afghan children starved to death. Never see that in your jewspaper, do you?
Mali’s Islamists still control the provincial capital of Kidal farther north and are believed to have dug a network of tunnels, trenches, and caves from which they can launch attacks.
C'mon! You don't really expect us to believe that s*** anymore, do you?
Related: French take Islamists’ last major Malian town
So much for hiding out in those caves and tunnels.
--more--"
Malians told them where you are:
"Mali residents turn over Islamists to military" by Jerome Delay and Krista Larson | Associated Press, January 30, 2013
GAO, Mali — Residents in Mali’s newly liberated city of Gao hunted down and beat suspected Islamist extremists who had not fled with their brothers-in-arms as Malian and French military forces closed in and retook the town.
Malian troops bundled the men into an army truck Tuesday, their hands bound behind their backs. For the better part of a year, the Al Qaeda-linked extremists had banned music, insisted women cover themselves, and began carrying out public executions and amputations in the towns of northern Mali that they controlled.
Now the Islamists’ control of the cities has slipped, with the provincial capitals of Gao and Timbuktu coming back under government authority in quick succession with the arrival of French and Malian troops. They also may have lost control of a third key city, Kidal.
France, the former colonial ruler, began sending in troops, helicopters, and warplanes on Jan. 11 to turn the tide after the armed Islamists began encroaching on the south, toward the capital.
French and Malian troops seized Gao during the weekend, welcomed by joyous crowds. They took Timbuktu on Monday. The Islamists gave up both cities and retreated into the desert.
Members of a youth militia, the Gao Patrolmen, went house to house hunting down suspected Islamic extremists. Abdul Karim Samba, spokesman for the group, said men were scouring the town for remnants of the extremist Islamist group known as the Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad.
Troops from Chad, one of the African nations sending soldiers to help restore Malian government control over the whole country, patrolled the streets, and French soldiers joined overnight patrols. The city market was slowly returning to normal.
--more--"
Yup, life is slowly returning to normal after reign of terror that turns of residents. Hell of a way to run a revolution, if you believe the propaganda press. Never mind the good guys abuses (they will investigate) or the continuing airstrikes because "signs of life were returning to normal, and where there was no visible presence of the Islamic rebels who imposed harsh rule for months." French were even greeted as liberators.
I'm told they may even leave by March if everything goes as planned, and of course it didn't. The "the Islamist militants may be creeping back toward their stronghold," but the French are leaving anyway -- even though it is just moving troops to other parts of the country -- as the Islamists make a surprise attack! But just as quickly, the French secure the town and AP (pffft) "found" Al-CIA-Duh's plans! What an absolute load of merde!
Meanwhile, 65 terrorists were reported killed as the fierce struggle continues, making it "too early to talk about a quick pullout."
Some sort of victory is needed:
"Chad claims Al Qaeda commander killed" by Dany Padire | Associated Press, March 03, 2013
N'DJAMENA, Chad — The head of Chad’s military announced on state television Saturday that troops deployed in northern Mali killed Moktar Belmoktar, the international terrorist responsible for the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that resulted in the death of dozens of foreigners.
The French military, which is leading the offensive in northern Mali, says it cannot confirm the information.
Army Chief of Staff General Zakaria Ngobongue read a statement saying Chadian soldiers on Saturday had destroyed a jihadist base in the Adrar and Ifoghas mountains of North Mali, killing Belmoktar.
The purported death of Belmoktar comes a day after Chad’s president said their troops killed Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, the other main Al Qaeda commander in the region, a claim the French also said they could not confirm.
President Idriss Deby announced that Chadian troops killed Abou Zeid while fighting to dislodge an Al Qaeda affiliate in northern Mali.
The death of Abou Zeid, an Algerian warlord and leader of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, also could not be verified. The group has been implicated in the kidnapping of several Westerners, and Abou Zeid's death would be a big blow to his group and its growing influence in North and West Africa.
Abou Zeid was an archrival of Belmoktar, whose profile soared after a mid-January attack on a huge Algerian gas plant and a mass hostage-taking which left 37 hostages and 29 attackers dead.
Officials in Mali and in France, which is leading an international military intervention in Mali against Islamic extremists linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, could not confirm Abou Zeid’s death. The White House had no immediate reaction to the announcement. The United States has offered drones and intelligence help to the French-led operation.
The Chadian president’s spokesman said that Deby announced the death of Abou Zeid during a ceremony Friday for Chadian soldiers killed in fighting in Mali....
Chadian television showed images of Friday’s tribute to the fallen soldiers from Chad, a row of coffins draped with the blue, yellow and red flags, and dignitaries from Chad and neighboring countries.
Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, who led one of the most violent brigades of Al Qaeda’s North African franchise and helped lead the extremist takeover of northern Mali, was thought to be 47 years old.
He was a pillar of the southern realm of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, responsible for the death of at least two European hostages. He was believed to be holding four French nationals kidnapped two years ago at a uranium mine in Niger. The fate of those hostages, working for French company Areva, was unclear Friday night.
Keep that uranium mine in mind.
Keep that uranium mine in mind.
Abou Zeid held a Frenchman released in February 2010, and another who was executed that July. He’s also been linked to the execution of a British hostage in 2009.
The French military moved into Mali on Jan. 11 to push back militants linked to Abou Zeid and other extremist groups.
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Related:
"France said Monday for the first time that a key Al Qaeda-linked leader in Mali is probably dead, and if confirmed, their killings could mark an important turning point for France"
Oh, no, NOT AGAIN! How many times they going to kill and exhume this guy?
Oh, wait, the French confirmed it.
These the same guys that confirmed Syrian government chemical weapons use when it was the rebels in a false flag attack?
Related:
"The war against armed Islamist extremists in Mali will lose about 2,000 Chadian soldiers, the president of Chad said, leaving Malian cities more vulnerable to a resurgence of jihadist attacks. The news that Chad will pull its troops from Mali could force France to push back its own timeframe for withdrawing its troops."
Especially when the Islamic extremists are back in Timbuktu with their suicide bombers so now it is the United Nations to the rescue as the French defense minister visits, the jihadist cells are dismantled, and in come the pledges for money to rebuild as you suffer austerity for bankers, European citizens.
"France is said to pay ransom to free hostages; Ex-ambassador says $17m given" by Lori Hinnant | Associated Press, February 09, 2013
PARIS — A former US ambassador to Mali has alleged that France paid a $17 million ransom to free hostages seized from a French mining site — cash she said ultimately funded the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants its troops are now fighting.
French officials, whose soldiers are pushing north into the territory where the missing captives are believed to be held, denied paying any ransoms.
Vicki Huddleston’s allegations, which she said dated back two years, strengthened the view that the Mali rebellion was funded largely by ransoms paid in recent years.
In February 2011, three of the hostages seized at a French uranium mine in Niger — including one Frenchwoman — were freed; four remain in the hands Al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali.
I note that because that is where the yellowcake Iraq was seeking from Africa lie was based -- at a French-controlled mine, which means nothing went out without them knowing.
Thus that was a huge, stinking lie in the State of the Union!
I note that because that is where the yellowcake Iraq was seeking from Africa lie was based -- at a French-controlled mine, which means nothing went out without them knowing.
Thus that was a huge, stinking lie in the State of the Union!
Related:
The Islamist rebels retreating northward are apparently taking their Western hostages with them — among them the mine workers and three other French citizens seized elsewhere.
Huddleston, who served as ambassador to Mali and held positions in the State Department and Defense Department in the United States before retiring, told France’s iTele network that the French money allowed Al Qaeda’s North Africa branch to flourish in Mali.
‘‘Although governments deny that they’re paying ransoms, everyone is pretty much aware that money has passed hands indirectly through different accounts and it ends up in the treasury, let us say, of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and allows them to buy weapons and recruit,’’ she said in the comments that aired Friday.
Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism specialist at the Swedish National Defense College, said a French policy of paying for hostages through middlemen has been clear for years and has broad support from a public that sees near daily references to the hostages on television and in print.
‘‘There is a political consensus that is being built subtly. Every single day you are reminded that you have nationals somewhere,’’ Ranstorp said. ‘‘It’s through several middlemen. It’s almost a normal business transaction.’’
The primary drawback as far as France is concerned, he said, ‘‘is a security cost because wherever French people go they become prey.’’
******************************************
Philippe Lalliot, the current spokesman for the foreign ministry, dismissed Huddleston’s comments as based on ‘‘rumor.’’
‘‘On these statements, if you want to quote them very precisely — statements that point to rumors — I don’t have a particular comment to make. On the situation of our hostages more generally, you know that it is a concern for us at every moment,’’ Lalliot said.
Even as France launched its military intervention in Mali on Jan. 11, the hostages remained in the French public eye. Rarely a day goes by without a story about their possible whereabouts.
--more--"
Didn't have to pay ransom; they escaped.
Related:
"Sending troops this year to the West African nation of Mali gave Hollande a temporary boost in popularity — but record-high and still-growing unemployment matters more, as he found this week on a trip to reconnect with the electorate. Some polls indicate Hollande has the worst approval ratings of any French president since 1981"
2 arrested in French anti-terrorism probe
They had been under surveillance since November.
How do you say patsy if French?
