France Leads the UN into Mali, America Offers Support

Dear readers, here is a summary of what is happening in Mali...and why. It proves that a united front of nations and the UN Security Council can do real good. If the same international will existed about Syria, the massacre of civilians would end quickly. Mali may also finally prove that al-Qaida is beatable wherever they dig in - if only a united world has the courage to take the fight to them. ~~~~~~ French airstrikes Friday night drove back islamist rebels from Mopti, a key city and important Mali military base, and destroyed a militant command center, the French defense minister said Saturday, as West African nations authorized the immediate deployment of troops to the country. The lawless desert region of northern Mali has been under the control of al-Qaida in Magreb (AQIM) related jihadist groups for the past nine months. They recently advanced closer to the major base of the Malian army and revved up the battle for the vast West African nation, which is much larger than Afghanistan, according to French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. French military intervention came Friday in the former French colony, after the appeal for help from Mali's president. The initial fighting involved hundreds of French troops and airstrikes on three rebel targets, said Le Drian. He said a rebel command center outside the key city of Konna on the southern line of the northern area held by the jihadists was destroyed. A French helicopter was downed by the militants, armed with artillery weaponry taken from post-Qadhafi Libya, as well as the weapons abandoned by Mali's military when they fled their posts in the face of the rebel advance. The French pilot died of his wounds during evacuation. The French drove the militants out of Konna, but a Mali military official said that the city captured by the extremists earlier this week was not yet completely under government control. A jihadist spokesman said their fighters were still in Konna. The West African ECOWAS commission president Kadre Desire Ouedraogo said the bloc had authorized the immediate deployment of troops to Mali, "...in light of the urgency of the situation." The extremist Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, known as MUJAO, vowed their fighters would soon conquer the capital, Bamako, according to a transcript that the Associated Press said was provided by Washington-based SITE Intelligence. MUJAO called for fighters to attack French interests in retaliation for the air raids and mentioned possible targets, including the French embassy in Niger. The unsuccessful Friday night French commando attack near Mogadishu in Somalia that failed to rescue a French commando held hostage for several years may have been an attempt to get out in front of the jihadist threats against French interests, although Paris said the rescue mission had been authorized several days ago. France's sudden entry into Mali was unexpected after months of debate over whether Western powers should get involved in a military bid to oust the militants, who took advantage of a coup in Mali's capital in March 2012 to capture the north. As recently as December, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cautioned against a quick military operation, warning that it could open the door to human rights abuses. Diplomats had said that September 2013 would be the earliest a military intervention could take place. But that changed when jihadists were discovered preparing for a march south beyond their line of control, located 900 kilometers (540 miles) from the capital. By Thursday, they had succeeded in pushing another 120 kilometers (72 miles) south, bringing them very close to the ill-equipped and ill-trained Malian military in a showdown that couldn't be ignored by the international community. ECOWAS has been talking for months about a military operation to oust the Islamists from northern Mali. The UN Security Council late last year approved a regional force to aid Mail in its fight to drive out the militants, but its approval was, perhaps unnecessarily, hampered by its requirement that the weak Mali military be trained. These efforts have dragged on. The Security Council condemned the recent militant push south and urged UN member states to assist Mali "...in order to reduce the threat posed by terrorist organizations and associated groups." Mali is ill-prepared to defend itself. It is a very poor country where the daily fight is normally against hunger. But most Malians adhere to a moderate form of Islam that the jihadists are trying to eradicate. They are terrorizing the Malians who live in the north, carrying out amputations in public squares just as the Taliban did. And as in Afghanistan, they are flogging women for not beong completely covered. Since taking control of Timbuktu, they have destroyed seven of the 16 mausoleums listed as world heritage sites. 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.". A spokesman for Mali's defense minister said on Saturday that he was at the Bamako airport to receive a contingent of French special forces from one of their tactical units who will protect the Bamako airport and provide back-up security in the capital. "The situation in Mali is serious," Defense Minister Le Drian said in Paris. "It has rapidly worsened in the last few days ... We had to react before it was too late..." because French intelligence services, he said, had confirmed the presence of militant forces moving against the towns of Mopti and Diabaly. Francois Hollande authorized use of French air power against the column of jihadist fighters who were heading down toward Mopti from Konna. He said that the helicopter raid led to the destruction of "several (jihadist) units and stopped their advance toward the city." French forces based in Chad and their scrambled Mirage 2000 and Mirage F1 fighter jets routed the jihadist fighters. It was in the course of this battle, that one helicopter was downed, and a French pilot fatally wounded. According to the AP, Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counter-terrorism for Africa in the Pentagon, said that officials in Washington were in all-day meetings on Friday, trying to chart a course of action. The United States has previously said it will provide logistical support to the military intervention, including drones, according to a US official not authorized to discuss the matter. In just 24 hours, French forces succeeded in dispersing the Islamists from Konna, the town the fighters had seized earlier in the week. Malian military officials said they were now conducting sweeps, looking for snipers. "Heavy losses have been inflicted on our adversaries, but our mission is not complete," French President Francois Hollande said after a three-hour meeting with his defense chiefs in Paris on Saturday. "I reiterate that it consists of preparing the deployment of an African intervention force to allow Mali to recover its territorial integrity."