USA Africa Dialogue Series - Britain to send aircraft to Mali to assist French fight against rebels

Britain to send aircraft to Mali to assist French fight against rebels

Fears of terrorist reprisals in Europe rise as more than 120 reported
dead after French air strikes on extremists

Peter Beaumont, Cass Jones and Kim Willsher in Paris
Sunday 13 January 2013

The Observer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/12/mali-somalia-france-rebels-islamist-francois-hollande

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Britain announced on Saturday night that it was deploying aircraft to
assist French military operations against Islamist rebels in Mali as
an escalation in hostilities was claimed to have killed more than 120
people.

David Cameron's offer to transport foreign troops and equipment
involved Britain in a fresh conflict that could provoke terrorist
reprisals against European targets. President François Hollande
yesterday placed France on high alert as French planes bombarded
targets in Mali.

Downing Street said two transport planes would be dispatched, but
British troops would not join the French military mission to help
recapture the north of Mali from al-Qaida-linked rebels acting against
the country's government.

"The prime minister spoke to President Hollande this evening to
discuss the deteriorating situation in Mali and how the UK can support
French military assistance provided to the Malian government to
contain rebel and extremist groups in the north of the country," a
spokeswoman said. "Both leaders agreed that the situation in Mali
poses a real threat to international security given terrorist activity
there."

Earlier, Hollande warned that two days of air strikes by French war
planes were only the opening salvoes in a longer campaign. "We have
already held back the progress of our adversaries and inflicted heavy
losses on them. But our mission is not over yet," he said.

The latest aerial bombardment led to the death of a French pilot,
Damien Boiteux, and, according to a senior army officer in Mali, those
of more than 100 rebel troops following fighting for the strategic
town of Konna. Malian officials said 11 government soldiers had been
killed in efforts to wrest the town from rebel control. Human rights
groups counted 10 civilian deaths.

France insists it is undertaking military operations in Mali, which
had been a stable democracy until a military coup last March paved the
way for the Islamist rebellion, to provide support to a West African
troop deployment backed by the United Nations.

Regional economic bloc Ecowas has accelerated its efforts to send
troops to the international campaign in Mali, authorising the
immediate deployment of 3,300 troops.

The United States was also said to be weighing possible involvement
with the Pentagon considering options such as intelligence-sharing
with France and logistics support.

For Hollande, the intervention in Mali represents the biggest foreign
policy test he has faced since becoming president in May. So far he
has enjoyed widespread political support at home and abroad for the
African mission.

France's defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said hundreds of French
troops and aircraft had been involved in fighting at three locations
in the centre of Mali, including against an Islamist command centre.

A French army unit also attacked a column of rebels heading towards
the town of Mopti. He insisted that France was compelled to act
quickly to stop the Islamist offensive, which he said could allow "a
terrorist state at the doorstep of France and Europe".

In a separate military operation in Somalia, a French soldier was
killed during a botched commando raid on an Islamist compound to
rescue a captured secret service agent. The hostage is also believed
to have been killed in the operation.

Another commando is listed as missing amid claims that he was injured
and captured by fighters belonging to the Islamist al-Shabaab
movement.

The operation had failed "despite the sacrifice of two of our soldiers
and without doubt the assassination of our hostage", Hollande said.
But he said it confirmed "France's determination not to give in to the
blackmail of terrorists" and reiterated his commitment to pursuing
military intervention in Mali.

Although officials denied there was any connection between the rescue
effort and the operation launched in Mali, the French military
escalation would have complicated the position of the hostage in
Somalia.

The secret service agent, "Denis Allex", is believed to have been
killed by his captors during a failed helicopter raid in Bula Mareer,
70 miles south of Mogadishu. The assault faltered after resistance at
the compound, which was reinforced by fighters at a neighbouring
training camp who heard the helicopters.

The agent and a colleague were kidnapped in 2009 while assigned to the
international effort to assist Somalia's transitional government in
Mogadishu. His colleague escaped a month later.

Residents of the town described explosions and gunfire while an al-
Shabaab official said that the fighting began after helicopters had
dropped off French commandos.

The French ministry of defence said that the decision to launch the
raid to rescue Allex had been taken after there had been no progress
in three years of attempted negotiations to secure his release.

"Faced with the intransigence of the terrorists, who refused for three
years to engage in all negotiations, and who were holding Denis Allex
in inhuman conditions, an operation was planned and set in effect,"
said a spokesman.

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