France launches Mali airstrikes
BY BABA AHMED & SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press
Saturday, January 12, 2013
France launched airstrikes
Friday to help the government
of Mali defeat al-Qaida-
linked militants who
captured more ground this
week, dramatically raising
the stakes in the battle for
this vast desert nation.
French President Francois
Hollande
said the
“terrorist
groups,
drug traffickers and extremists”
in northern Mali “show
a brutality that threatens us
all.” He vowed that the operation
would last “as long as
necessary.
France said it was taking
the action in Mali at the
request of President Dioncounda
Traore, who declared
a state of emergency because
of the militants’ advance.
The arrival of the French
troops in their former colony
came a day after the Islamists
moved the closest yet toward
territory still under government
control and fought the
Malian military for the first
time in months, seizing the
strategic city of Konna.
Sanda Abou Moahmed, a
spokesman for the Ansar Dine
group, condemned Mali’s
president for seeking military
help from its former colonizer.
“While Dioncounda Traore
asked for help from France,
we ask for guidance from Allah
and from other Muslims
in our sub-region because this
war has become a war against
the crusaders,” he said by telephone
from Timbuktu.
For the past nine months,
the Islamic militants have
controlled a large swath of
northern Mali, a lawless desert
region where kidnapping
has flourished.
“French armed forces supported
Malian units this afternoon
to fight against terrorist
elements,” Hollande
said in Paris.
He did not give any details
of the operation, other than
to say that it was aimed in
part at protecting the 6,000
French citizens in Mali,
where seven of them already
are being held captive.
French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius, when
asked whether France had
launched airstrikes, said, “To
the question of whether there
was an air intervention, the
response is yes.” He refused
to give any other details for
security reasons.
France is operating helicopter
gunships in Mali, two
diplomats told The Associated
Press. They spoke on condition
of anonymity because
they were not authorized to
discuss the operation publicly.
French special forces,
who have been operating in
the region recently, are also
believed to be taking part in
the military operation, one
diplomat said.
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon told the AP that
Senegal and Nigeria also responded
to an appeal from
Mali’s president for help to
counter the militants.
Residents in central Mali
said they had seen Western
military personnel arriving in
the area, with planes landing
at a nearby airport throughout
the night.
Associated Images:
Francois Hollande: The French president said
Islamist militants controlling much of northern
Mali “show a brutality that threatens us all,”
as his country launched airstrikes against the
al-Qaida-linked forces. Hollande said French
operations on behalf of its former colony will
continue “as long as necessary.”
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