as you read this, like me, we should consider how this compares with syria where 60,000 people are reported to have died, but where the russians and chinese have said, keep back
ken
By ADAM NOSSITER and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: January 11, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali — The international standoff with Islamists controlling northern Mali took a decisive turn on Friday, as French forces engaged in an intense battle to beat back an aggressive militant push into the center of the country.
Multimedia
Pool photo by Philippe Wojazer
President François Hollande of France said the military operation would “last as long as necessary,” while governments of Mali’s neighbors and others discussed how to move forward.
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 Gen. Carter F. Ham, the top American military commander in Africa. One French helicopter had apparently been downed in the fighting, 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 American troops, General 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 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 safe haven where terrorists were building their ranks and seeking to extend their influence throughout the region and beyond.
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.
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 General Ham and a Western diplomat. Worried that there was little to stop the militants from storming ever further into Mali, France — for the second time in less than two years — intervened with guns and bombs into a former African colony rent by turmoil.
“French forces brought their support this afternoon to Malian Army units to fight against terrorist elements,” President François Hollande of France said in a statement to reporters 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, known as A.Q.I.M., and its allies, insisted in a telephone 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.”
Mr. 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 Tiébilé Dramé, 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 Konna on Thursday, a possible prelude to attacking bigger towns on their way to the capital, more than 300 miles away, remained unclear. They were not facing a military intervention for many months, and even then it was not expected to include Western forces.
“Was this a move by A.Q.I.M. toward Bamako? Were they making a move to simply strengthen negotiating position, to gain a little more territory?” General Ham said. “The real question is, now what?” he said, adding that discussions were now under way among Washington, Paris and African governments in the region.
The big prize the Islamists evidently sought — capturing the major Malian government airfield nearby in Sévaré, which is vital for any military intervention in the north of Mali — seemed to be outside their grasp on Friday.
But while senior Malian officers heralded their new military “partners on the ground,” some warned that the Islamists remained strong and could still press forward. “It’s temporary,” said one officer, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “They have the means to advance.”
Holding off the Islamists, moreover, is a far cry from retaking the north. While tens of thousands of civilians have fled the area, many others remain in the ancient city of Timbuktu and other towns under Islamist control, leaving them highly vulnerable in the event urban warfare breaks out.
Beyond that, extremists in the north, who finance themselves in part by kidnapping and ransoming foreigners, are still holding more than a dozen hostages and have sometimes threatened to kill them if an attack takes place.
Still, Western and Malian officials said the French assault had changed the dynamic of the conflict, accelerating plans for a broader military strategy.
“What’s sure now is that things will not happen as we thought they would a month ago,” said a Western diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “We’ve told Ecowas countries to accelerate preparations to send troops,” he added, referring to the 15-member Economic Community of West African States, which has agreed to provide an intervention force.
France has a long history of expeditionary military actions in its former African colonies. Mr. Hollande had said that France would not send troops into combat in Mali until Friday, when it seemed that the government in Bamako might collapse. But the French had positioned military contingents near Mali, with deployments in Senegal, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast, for example. There were also persistent reports that French special forces were in Mali.
Under Mr. Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, France also carried out airstrikes to dislodge Ivory Coast’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, in 2011, bringing a quick end to a bloody four-month civil war precipitated by Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to leave office after an electoral defeat.
-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment