France Intervention in Mali Backed by West, UN

Local Editor

The United States is providing communications and transport help for an international military intervention aimed at wresting Mali's north out of the hands of militants, reported CBS news.

Though the mission is taking place in a "lawless desert in Mali," French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the operation was "gaining international backing. The US was providing communications and transportation support."
On January 12, "US officials" told CBS "they had offered to send drones to Mali."
According to the Wall Street Journal, "France asked Washington late last week to deploy unmanned aerial drones and aircraft that could be used to refuel French fighter planes in the air. Paris also asked the US to provide satellite imagery and share intercepts of militants' communications."
According to the paper, anonymous US officials said the role of America "would be non-lethal in nature, focused on intelligence collection and providing other support to French and any allied African forces."
But drones were used to carry out strikes in Libya in 2011 which proves "military drones might not just provide non-lethal tactical support to enable French military operations."

Moreover, the United Nations Security Council has expressed its approval of France's military intervention in Mali. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon claimed on Monday that France's initiative would "help to arrest the latest [rebel] offensive."

France's ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, , following a two-hour meeting with Security Council members in New York City told reporters that the 14 other nations at the UN had given their "understanding and support" to France.
The German cabinet had agreed, for example, to discuss supporting France's activities, "in the political, logistics, humanitarian and medical fields," said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
Britain also offered logistical and intelligence support, as it has sent two C17 cargo planes to assist French operations, however both nations ruled out sending in troops.

EU foreign leaders were scheduled to hold a special meeting this week to discuss military assistance in greater detail.
France said on Monday that the Mali fighters have retreated in the east of the African country, but acknowledged that its forces were facing a difficult situation in the west.
Few days after France started its military intervention in Mali, Paris alleged the objective was to force the extremists, who have controlled northern Mali since April 2012, to retreat from territory in the center of the country which they seized last week.

"In the east of Mali, the terrorist groups' advance was blocked, the city of Konna was abandoned and the terrorist groups retreated towards Douentza," French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

"In Gao, there was some targeted firing on the rear base of (Al-Qaeda offshoot) MUJAO, which gave some extremely tangible results and led to this terrorist group's dispersion towards the east and the south," he added.
He added however that the situation "remains difficult in the West," where French and Malian forces are confronting "extremely well-armed groups".
Militants have pledged to strike "at the heart" of France in a statement that confirms the fears of a French judge who warned that an intervention in Mali could lead to terrorist attacks on French soil.

France began its military action in Mali on Friday for what it said was to halt advances made by the rebels who control the north of the West African country.
French air raids on Sunday left a large number of civilians dead. A spokesman for one of Mali's rebel groups, Ansar Dine, said that only five of the people killed by French airstrikes were members of the group.
The Ansar Dine spokesman added that the French bombardment left hospitals in the town of Konna overwhelmed with injured and dead, including many women, children, and elderly people.

Human Rights Watch also said that some 10 civilians, including three children, were killed during the airstrikes.
Unrest erupted in Mali after President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup on March 22, 2012.

Dominique de Villepin, France's foreign minister from 2002 to 2004, has said that France would do well to learn from the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq, lessons that British and American officials have apparently yet to learn.

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