France strikes Mali rebels

AP

A French soldiers patrols under the Eiffel tower on Sunday, January 13, 2013. France has ordered tightened security in public buildings and transport following action against radical Islamists both in Mali and Somalia, French President Francois Hollande said.

Bamako/Paris - French fighter jets pounded Islamist rebel strongholds deep in northern Mali on Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital, Bamako, awaiting a West African force to dislodge al-Qaeda-linked insurgents from the country’s north.

The attacks on Islamist positions near the ancient desert trading town of Timbuktu and Gao marked a decisive intensification on the third day of the French mission, striking at the heart of the vast area seized by rebels in April.

France is determined to end Islamist domination of northern Mali, which many fear could act as a base for attacks on the West and for links with al-Qaeda in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said France’s intervention on Friday prevented the advancing rebels from seizing Bamako and vowed air strikes would continue.

Residents and rebel leaders had reported air raids early on Sunday in the towns of Lere and Douentza in central Mali, forcing Islamists to withdraw. As the day progressed, French jets struck targets further to the north, including near Kidal, the epicentre of the rebellion.

In Gao, a town on the banks of the Niger River where Islamists have imposed an extreme form of sharia (law), residents said French jets pounded the airport and rebel positions. A huge cloud of smoke rose from the militants’ camp in the city’s north, and trucks ferried dead and wounded to hospital.

Paris said four Rafale jets flew from France to strike rebel training camps, logistics depots and infrastructure around Gao with the aim of weakening the rebels and preventing them from returning southwards.

France has deployed about 550 soldiers to Mali under “Operation Serval”, split between Bamako and Mopti, 500km north. In Bamako, more than 100 French troops disembarked on Sunday from a military cargo plane at the airport near the capital. –

The city’s streets were calm, with the sun streaking through the dusty air as the seasonal Harmattan wind blew from the Sahara. Many cars had French flags draped from the windows to celebrate Paris’s intervention.

More than two decades of peaceful elections had earned Mali a reputation as a bulwark of democracy, but that image unravelled in a matter of weeks after a military coup in March which left a power vacuum for the Islamist rebellion.

France convened a UN Security Council meeting for Monday to discuss Mali. French President Francois Hollande’s intervention has won plaudits from leaders in Europe, Africa and the United States but it is not without risks.

It raised the threat level for eight French hostages held by al-Qaeda allies in the Sahara and for the 30 000 French expatriates living in neighbouring, mostly Muslim states.

Concerned about reprisals, France has tightened security at public buildings and on public transport. It advised its 6 000 citizens to leave Mali as spokesmen for Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda’s north Africa wing AQIM promised to exact revenge.

In its first casualty of the campaign, Paris said a French pilot was killed on Friday when rebels shot down his helicopter.

Hours earlier, a French intelligence officer held hostage in Somalia by al-Shabaab extremists linked to al-Qaeda was killed in a failed commando raid to free him.

Hollande says France’s aim is simply to support a mission by West African bloc Ecowas to retake the north, as mandated by a U. Security Council resolution in December.

With Paris pressing West African nations to send their troops quickly, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, who holds the rotating Ecowas chairmanship, kick-started the operation to deploy 3 300 African soldiers.

Ouattara, installed in power with French military backing in 2011, convened a summit of the 15-nation bloc for Saturday in Ivory Coast to discuss the mission.

The United States is providing transportation and communications support for the push against the Islamist rebels, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US support also includes intelligence sharing, the official said. Earlier on Sunday, another US official said Washington was considering sending a small number of unarmed surveillance drones.

Britain and Canada have also promised logistical support.

Former French colonies Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso have all pledged to deploy 500 troops within days. In contrast, regional powerhouse Nigeria, due to lead the Ecowas force, has suggested it would take time to train and equip the troops.

France, however, appeared to have assumed control of the operation on the ground. Its air strikes allowed Malian troops to drive the Islamists out of the strategic town of Konna, which they had briefly seized this week in their southward advance.

Calm returned to Konna after three nights of combat as the Malian army crushed any remaining rebel fighters. A senior army official said more than 100 rebels had been killed.

Doubt

Analysts expressed doubt, however, that African nations would be able to mount a swift operation to retake north Mali - a harsh, sparsely populated terrain the size of France - as neither the equipment nor ground troops were prepared.

“My first impression is that this is an emergency patch in a very dangerous situation,” said Gregory Mann, associate professor of history at Columbia University, who specialises in francophone Africa and Mali in particular.

While France and its allies may be able to drive rebel fighters from large towns, they could struggle to prise them from mountain redoubts in the region of Kidal, 300 km northeast of Gao.

Human Rights Watch said at least 11 civilians, including three children, had been killed in the fighting. A spokesman for Doctors Without Borders in neighbouring Mauritania said about 200 Malian refugees had fled across the border to a camp at Fassala and more were on their way. - Reuters