Mali rebels fight back, promise France long war
Source: Agencies |
January 15, 2013, Tuesday
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AL-QAIDA-LINKED Islamist rebels launched a counteroffensive in Mali yesterday after four days of French air strikes on their northern strongholds, seizing the central town of Diabaly and promising to drag France into a brutal Afghanistan-style war.
France, which has poured hundreds of troops into the capital Bamako in recent days, carried out more air raids yesterday in the vast desert area seized last year by an Islamist alliance grouping al-Qaida's north African wing AQIM alongside Mali's home-grown MUJWA and Ansar Dine militant groups.
"France has opened the gates of hell for all the French," a spokesman for MUJWA, Oumar Ould Hamaha, told Europe 1 radio. "She has fallen into a trap which is much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia."
MUJWA, which has imposed strict sharia law in its northern fiefdom of Gao, promised France would pay for air strikes on the city. Dozens of its fighters died on Sunday when rockets hit a fuel depot and a customs house being used as a headquarters.
Launching a counter-attack far to the southwest of recent fighting, Islamists dislodged government forces from the town of Diabaly, just 350km northeast of Bamako. French and Malian troops attempting to retake the town were battling the rebels.
The rebels infiltrated the town overnight from the porous border region with Mauritania, home to AQIM camps housing well-equipped and trained foreign fighters.
France convened a UN Security Council meeting yesterday to discuss the Mali crisis.
France has said its sudden intervention last Friday, responding to an urgent appeal from Mali's president prompted by an advance by a heavily armed rebel convoy, stopped the Islamists from seizing the dusty capital of Bamako.
President Francois Hollande says Operation Serval is solely aimed at supporting the 15-nation West African bloc ECOWAS which received UN backing in December for a military intervention to dislodge the rebels.
Concerned about reprisals at home, France has tightened security at public buildings and on public transport.
However, France's top anti-terrorist judge, Marc Trevidic played down the risk of Islamists carrying out an imminent attack, telling French media: "They're not very organised right now ... It could be a counter attack later on after the defeat on the ground. It's often like that."
France, which has poured hundreds of troops into the capital Bamako in recent days, carried out more air raids yesterday in the vast desert area seized last year by an Islamist alliance grouping al-Qaida's north African wing AQIM alongside Mali's home-grown MUJWA and Ansar Dine militant groups.
"France has opened the gates of hell for all the French," a spokesman for MUJWA, Oumar Ould Hamaha, told Europe 1 radio. "She has fallen into a trap which is much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia."
MUJWA, which has imposed strict sharia law in its northern fiefdom of Gao, promised France would pay for air strikes on the city. Dozens of its fighters died on Sunday when rockets hit a fuel depot and a customs house being used as a headquarters.
Launching a counter-attack far to the southwest of recent fighting, Islamists dislodged government forces from the town of Diabaly, just 350km northeast of Bamako. French and Malian troops attempting to retake the town were battling the rebels.
The rebels infiltrated the town overnight from the porous border region with Mauritania, home to AQIM camps housing well-equipped and trained foreign fighters.
France convened a UN Security Council meeting yesterday to discuss the Mali crisis.
France has said its sudden intervention last Friday, responding to an urgent appeal from Mali's president prompted by an advance by a heavily armed rebel convoy, stopped the Islamists from seizing the dusty capital of Bamako.
President Francois Hollande says Operation Serval is solely aimed at supporting the 15-nation West African bloc ECOWAS which received UN backing in December for a military intervention to dislodge the rebels.
Concerned about reprisals at home, France has tightened security at public buildings and on public transport.
However, France's top anti-terrorist judge, Marc Trevidic played down the risk of Islamists carrying out an imminent attack, telling French media: "They're not very organised right now ... It could be a counter attack later on after the defeat on the ground. It's often like that."
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