Meddling in Mali

[longknife]

By Ivan Eland | Posted: Thu. November 8, 2012, 1:42pm PT

The United States is meddling in another internal civil war to prevent a “terrorist haven” from developing. This time it’s not in Somalia or Yemen but instead in the West African country of Mali. The United States and France are concerned that Islamists have taken over northern Mali, and the two countries are heavily leaning on Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president of the neighboring regional power Algeria, to support an international invasion of Mali. The American and French implication is that, if left unmolested, the Islamists in control of this territory will create a base for international Islamist terrorist operations. They back an invasion because they believe the government of Mali is incapable of retaking its own territory.

Read more @ Meddling in Mali: Newsroom: The Independent Institute

 

[Mr. H.]

On first glance I thought it said "Wedding in Mali".

I guess congrats aren't in order after all.

 

[waltky]

African Nations Agree: Let's Invade Mali...

African leaders agree to send troops to north Mali
Nov 12, 2012 - Leaders aim to wrest northern Mali from Islamist control

West African nations on Sunday agreed to send some 3,000 troops to help the country of Mali wrest back control of its northern half, which was seized by al-Qaida-linked fighters more than six months ago, according to an official involved in the discussions, and a statement read on Nigerian state television. The decision came late Sunday at the end of an emergency summit in Nigeria's capital of the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. They were joined by military experts from the United Nations, Europe as well as ministers from Algeria, Mali's neighbor to the north which has previously been against the military intervention. The plan needs final approval from the U.N. Security Council before it can be carried out.

An official involved in the negotiations said by telephone shortly after the meeting that the nations in West Africa are now unanimous in their decision to go forward with the military operation. He said that they will attempt one more round of negotiations with representatives of the Islamists controlling northern Mali, before moving ahead with the intervention. "We have agreed that 3,300 troops will be sent from West Africa. In addition, around 5,000 Malian troops will also be involved. If there is no agreement in the talks, we will move in," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

The official said that the largest number of troops will come from Nigeria, which has agreed to send 600 to 700 soldiers, he said. Niger is expected to contribute around 500. And the remaining troops will come from the other 13 nations in the 15-nation ECOWAS bloc. Air power, he said, will be provided by either France or the United States. Both France and the U.S. have said that the will provide technical and logistical support to the intervention, provided that it is first approved by the United Nations.

Mutinous soldiers overthrew Mali's democratically elected president in March, creating a power vacuum that paved the way for Islamists to grab the north, an area the size of France. In the more than six months since then, the Islamic extremists have imposed a strict form of Shariah law. Music of all kinds has been banned, and people are not even allowed to have a ring tone on their phones, unless it's one based on Quranic recitations. Women have been flogged for failing to cover themselves. And in all three of the major towns in the north, residents have been forced to watch thieves getting their hands hacked off.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Situation in Mali results in American kidnappings in Algeria...

Islamists take foreign hostages in attack on Algerian oil field
Wed January 16, 2013 - U.S. official says as few as 3 Americans are being held; Americans are among the hostages, the U.S. State Department says; The In Amenas gas field is run jointly by BP, Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrac; Panetta calls hostage-taking a "terrorist attack"

Islamists angry over Algeria's support for the French offensive in Mali attacked a gas field in southern Algeria, killing two people and seizing hostages, including Westerners, Algeria's interior minister said Wednesday. The Westerners, accompanied by Algerian security forces, were en route to Ain Menas Airport when they were attacked early in the morning by another group of no more than 20 people, Diho Weld Qabliyeh told Algerian state television. The security forces returned fire, and the attackers withdrew to the base of the petroleum operation, some 3 kilometers away, he said.

Upon arrival at the base, he continued, the attackers "took in a number of Westerners and Algerians -- some people told us they were nine, some people told us 12." U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Americans were among the hostages. Accounts over the number differed. An Algerian and a Westerner were killed in the attack, and two other Westerners, two of the security forces and two guards from the base were wounded, Qabliyeh said. Algerian media reported that a British national was among the fatalities.

British Foreign Minister William Hague, speaking in Sydney, Australia, said the captives included "a number of British nationals." Hague said the Foreign Office had sent a "rapid deployment team" to Algiers to beef up staffing at the embassy. Algerian military forces were surrounding the building holding the hostage-takers and the hostages, Qabliyeh said. Late Wednesday, the hostage-takers released the Algerians they had been holding but continued holding the Westerners, Algerian state television reported. The group has issued demands, but they elicited no response, Qabliyeh said. "The authorities do not negotiate, no negotiations; we have received their demands, but we didn't respond to them," he added.

A Mauritanian news agency, Al Akhbar, said the attackers demanded in a news release an end to "brutal aggression on our people in Mali." It cited "blatant intervention of the French crusader forces in Mali" and accused the world of having left Syria's people "groaning under the pressure of the butcher" President Bashar al-Assad. The news release said they chose to carry out the operation in Algeria because the country's president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, had allowed French military forces to cross Algerian air space in attacking Mali. A U.S. official was skeptical about that rationale. "The level of planning suggests that this was in train before the French overflights ever took place," the official said. That view was echoed by another U.S. official, who told CNN's Erin Burnett that, "as of now, the attack appeared organized," not put together quickly or opportunistic.

More Islamists take foreign hostages in attack on Algerian oil field - CNN.com

See also:

Americans among hostages taken in attack by al-Qaida-linked militants
January 16, 2013 — Islamist militants seized a Western-run gas field in Algeria on Wednesday, reportedly taking as many as 41 hostages, including seven Americans, in apparent retaliation for recent French airstrikes against Islamist extremists battling to overthrow neighboring Mali.

At least two people — a British citizen and a French national — were killed in the early morning raid on the In Armenas gas field in eastern Algeria, according to media reports that could not be independently verified. Seven people were reported injured. A militant group with purported ties to Algeria’s al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attack, an indication that the war in Mali may be spilling into North Africa. It was unclear exactly how many hostages were taken. The British Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department confirmed that Americans and Britons were among them. “In order to protect their safety, I’m not going to get into numbers. I’m not going to get into names,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. “I’m not going to get into any further details as we continue to work on this issue.”

A French catering company said that 150 local hires at its Algerian subsidiary were being held at the site. Media reports, however, said militants released the Algerians and were only holding foreigners. Hundreds of soldiers surrounded the complex and Algerian officials, who have battled militants for decades, appeared to rule out talks with the extremists. “The Algerian authorities will not respond to the demands of the terrorists and will not negotiate,” Algeria’s interior minister, Daho Ould Kablia, told the state news agency. The ministry said in a statement that a “terrorist group, heavily armed and using three vehicles” launched the assault at 5 a.m. about 60 miles from the Algerian-Libyan border. Militants who claimed they carried out the mission told the Mauritanian media they belonged to the Signed-in Blood Battalion, which is headed by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed Algerian militant the French had nicknamed “the Uncatchable.”

Belmokhtar was reportedly once a commander in al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb but split from the group to run his own operations in the Sahara region. He has, however, retained smuggling and other connections with al-Qaida. He funneled insurgents into Iraq to battle U.S. forces and is believed to have been behind the 2008 kidnapping of Robert Fowler, a former Canadian diplomat and U.N. envoy who was held for 130 days. A 2007 U.S. diplomatic cable described Belmokhtar, who trained in Afghanistan, as “more of a smuggler than an ideological warrior; more of an opportunist and bandit than a jihadi.” A report two years later by the Jamestown Foundation said that Belmokhtar “detached from the Algerian jihad and is pursuing his own vision of jihad in the Sahara.” Regional news agencies quoted militants as saying the attack was in retribution for Algeria permitting French war planes to use its airspace to attack Islamist fighters in Mali. French military intervention in Mali began this week to repel extremists in the north from advancing south in a bid to turn the West African nation into a jihadist haven that could export terrorism into Europe.

The border region of Mali and Algeria is awash in Islamic fighters and legions of weapons and contraband traffickers. The untamed territory has increasingly alarmed Western officials who fear that al-Qaida and its affiliates will exploit the lawlessness. That concern prompted French military action, which now, however, may have widened the conflict and reinvigorated al-Qaida. Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb, which emerged from the remnants of Algeria’s 1990s civil war, is one of the country’s most proficient militant organizations. The group has spread to Mali and, along with its affiliates, including those connected to Belmokhtar, has vowed to strike European targets and stage operations across northern and western Africa. Their arsenals are believed to have strengthened by heavy weapons looted in Libya during the fall of Moammar Gadhafi. The chaos in Libya also sent new recruits streaming into Algeria and Mali, where last year they helped Tuareg rebels overrun the north of the country following a coup. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has often funded is operations through millions of dollars in kidnapping ransoms.

http://www.stripes.com/news/america...-attack-by-al-qaida-linked-militants-1.204105

 

[Mr. H.]

African Nations Agree: Let's Invade Mali...

African leaders agree to send troops to north Mali
Nov 12, 2012 - Leaders aim to wrest northern Mali from Islamist control

West African nations on Sunday agreed to send some 3,000 troops to help the country of Mali wrest back control of its northern half, which was seized by al-Qaida-linked fighters more than six months ago, according to an official involved in the discussions, and a statement read on Nigerian state television. The decision came late Sunday at the end of an emergency summit in Nigeria's capital of the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. They were joined by military experts from the United Nations, Europe as well as ministers from Algeria, Mali's neighbor to the north which has previously been against the military intervention. The plan needs final approval from the U.N. Security Council before it can be carried out.

An official involved in the negotiations said by telephone shortly after the meeting that the nations in West Africa are now unanimous in their decision to go forward with the military operation. He said that they will attempt one more round of negotiations with representatives of the Islamists controlling northern Mali, before moving ahead with the intervention. "We have agreed that 3,300 troops will be sent from West Africa. In addition, around 5,000 Malian troops will also be involved. If there is no agreement in the talks, we will move in," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

The official said that the largest number of troops will come from Nigeria, which has agreed to send 600 to 700 soldiers, he said. Niger is expected to contribute around 500. And the remaining troops will come from the other 13 nations in the 15-nation ECOWAS bloc. Air power, he said, will be provided by either France or the United States. Both France and the U.S. have said that the will provide technical and logistical support to the intervention, provided that it is first approved by the United Nations.

Mutinous soldiers overthrew Mali's democratically elected president in March, creating a power vacuum that paved the way for Islamists to grab the north, an area the size of France. In the more than six months since then, the Islamic extremists have imposed a strict form of Shariah law. Music of all kinds has been banned, and people are not even allowed to have a ring tone on their phones, unless it's one based on Quranic recitations. Women have been flogged for failing to cover themselves. And in all three of the major towns in the north, residents have been forced to watch thieves getting their hands hacked off.

MORE

I think they're still waiting on them Aferkin troops.

 

[percysunshine]

Let's bomb Libya without a Congress thumbs up.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[waltky]

Extremists snatched lil' kids from schools to fight...

Mali radicals recruited child soldiers at schools
Feb 23,`13 -- The radical Islamic fighters showed up at Mohamed Salia's Quranic school, armed with weapons and demanding to address his students.

The leader, named Hamadi, entered one of the classrooms, took a piece of chalk and scrawled his message on the blackboard. "How to wage holy war," he wrote in Arabic. "How to terrorize the enemy in combat," the lesson plan continued. Then his mobile phone rang, and he stepped away to answer. Salia urged his students to pose some questions of their own when he returned: Where had he come from and what did he want with a bunch of young people? Hamadi told the students that people didn't ask questions like that where he was from. Islam knows no nationality, he replied and then left - and did not return before the French-led military operation ousted him and his fighters from power last month. "I told my students to be careful: that these men may be well-versed in the Quran but their Islamic point of view is not the same as ours," the teacher recalled.

Nearly a month after the al-Qaida-linked militants were driven out of Gao and into the surrounding villages, students are now returning to the city's Quranic schools. Many classrooms, though, are still half full, as tens of thousands of people fled the fighting and strict Islamic rule the extremists. However, other pupils left Gao not with their families but with the Islamic fighters when they retreated, say human rights activists and local officials. The experience of the Gao schools illustrates how the extremists used madrassas in northern Mali to indoctrinate young people and to recruit child soldiers.

The Islamic radicals attacked Gao several times this week, their second assault on the strategic city since they retreated in the face of French and Malian military, and their young recruits appear to be part of the strategy of MUJAO, or Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. "MUJAO took many of the students from the Quranic schools because they speak Arabic and are easier to convert and manipulate," Gao Mayor Sadou Diallo told The Associated Press. "Between 200 and 300 children have disappeared with the jihadists." "The schools were all complicit. They didn't have a choice - if you didn't collaborate with MUJAO you died," Diallo said. An untold number of children are believed to have been killed in the January fighting in central Mali, he said, and when jihadist strongholds were bombed in Gao during the military intervention last month.

Dozens of child soldiers were believed to be living in a government customs building that was later bombed during the military offensive, residents say. The Islamic fighters took away their wounded before it could be determined how many casualties there were at the site. The rubble of the building is littered with tiny children's shoes, and notebooks and pieces of wood on which the children copied Quranic verses. The children's writing in pen on notebook paper depicts verses seeking protection from evil. Imams and directors of the Quranic schools in Gao say it was here that the youths were radicalized, while the existing schools continued their regular curriculum. Students who were plucked from classrooms in Gao and the surrounding communities came to the customs building to study and prepare for war.

MORE

 

[Saigon]

I think they're still waiting on them Aferkin troops.

Why would you say that?

Have African troops not been involved in these kind of operations before....?

 

[waltky]

AQIM claims to have killed French hostage...

Al Qaeda ‘beheads French hostage held for 14 months in revenge for war in Mali’
20 March 2013 > Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claims to have beheaded Philippe Verdon; The geologist has been held captive by terror group for 14 months; French Foreign Office officials are still trying to verify the reports; Spokesman for the group said Hollande is responsible for other hostages; At least 14 french hostages currently held by Al Qaeda in west Africa

Al Qaeda terrorists today claimed to have beheaded a French hostage in retaliation for his country’s war in Mali. Foreign Office officials in Paris said they were trying to verify reports of the horrific death of Philippe Verdon, who has been in captivity for the past 14 months. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is waging a terrorist campaign against the French Army in Mali, claims it cut the geologist’s head off on March 10 ‘in response to France’s intervention in Northern Mali.’

investigations: The French Foreign office is investigating reports that geologist Philippe Verdon was beheaded by terror group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on March 10

Referring to Francois Hollande, a spokesman for the group calling himself Al-Qairawani added: ‘The French President Hollande is responsible for the lives of the other French hostages.’ There are at least 14 French hostages currently held by Al Qaeda in west Africa, including seven by AQIM. It means that France, which has already lost five soldiers fighting in Mali since the war started in January, is slowly being sucked into an increasingly bloody terrorist war.

Mr Hollande sent a force into Mali specifically to prevent the north of the country from being used as a launch pad for terror attacks in Africa and in the West. Mr Verdon, who is in his 50s, was captured on November 24 2011 along with Serge Lazarevic, a colleague. The men, who were on a business trip, were kidnapped from their hotel in Hombori, in the north of Mali. AQIM claimed that both men were secret agents or mercenaries, and later released a video of Mr Verdon in captivity.

Read more: Philippe Verdon: Al Qaeda 'beheads French hostage held for 14 months in revenge for war in Mali' | Mail Online

 

[longknife]

As usual, the French can't manage ANY military operations without screwing up.

 

[there4eyeM]

As usual, a gratuitous negative comment from knee-jerk anti-French quarters. What France has mismanaged here is not explained, nor how a few hundred of their soldiers made thousands of opposition fanatics run away without a fight.

 

[Saigon]

As usual, the French can't manage ANY military operations without screwing up.

What ARE you talking about - what was screwed up?