Rebel Groups merge in Mali and agree on Islamic State

[Sunni Man]

The two rebel groups that seized control of the northern half of Mali announced Saturday that they have agreed to fuse their movements and work together to create an independent Islamic state on the territory they occupy, a signatory to the agreement said.

Alghabass Ag Intalla, one of the leaders of Ansar Dine, which is fighting to create an Islamic state, confirmed that his movement was joining with the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, a secular rebel group led by Tuareg separatists. They signed the agreement in the northern town of Gao on Saturday evening, and celebratory gunfire rang out in both Gao and Timbuktu, another town under their control, as fighters heard the news.

"I have just signed an accord that will see an independent and Islamic state where we have Islamic law," Ag Intalla said.

Rebel Groups Merge in Mali, Agree on Islamic State - ABC News

 

[Mad Scientist]

I wonder if any Islamic rebel groups were backed by the US?

 

[High_Gravity]

Most of the world don't seem to be falling in step with this.

 

[waltky]

Islamists forcin' lil' kids to fight in war...

Child soldier's tale illustrates Mali's dirty war
Jan 26,`13 -- The boy sits with his knees tucked under his chest on the concrete floor of the police station here, his adolescent face a tableau of fear. He's still garbed in the knee-length tunic he was ordered to wear by the Islamic extremist who recruited him.

It's these same clothes, styled after those worn by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, which gave him away when he tried to flee earlier this week. They have now become his prison garb. Adama Drabo is 16, and his recruitment into the ranks of a group designated as a terrorist organization, followed by his violent interrogation at the hands of the Malian army, underscores the obstacles faced by France as it tries to wash its former West African colony clean of the al-Qaida-linked fighters occupying it. "In terms of the rules of engagement, you have to think to yourself, what will you do if a child comes up to you wearing an explosive vest? What do you do if a 12-year-old is manning a checkpoint?" says Rudolph Atallah, former director of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon during the Bush administration. "It's a very difficult situation."

France, which now has around 2,500 troops on the ground, plunged headfirst into the conflict in Mali two weeks ago, after the Islamist groups that have controlled the nation's northern half since last year began an aggressive push southward. The French soldiers are equipped with night vision goggles, anti-tank mines and laser-guided bombs. However, their enemy includes the hundreds of children, some as young as 11, who have been conscripted into the rebel army.

Among those the French will have to fight are boys like Adama, the uneducated, eldest child of a poor family of rice growers, who until recently spent his days plowing fields with oxen near the village of N'Denbougou. Living just 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the central Malian town of Niono, which has become one of the frontlines in the recent war, Adama fits the profile of the types of children the Islamists have successfully recruited. His village has a single mosque, and unlike the moderate form of Islam practiced in much of Mali, the one he and his family attended preached Wahabism. "We have observed a pattern of recruitment of child soldiers from villages that for many years have practiced a very strict form of Islam, referred to as Wahabism," says Corinne Dufka, senior researcher for West Africa at Human Rights Watch. "We estimate that hundreds of children have been recruited."

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See also:

Mali's road ahead: Reprisal fears and desert warfare
26 January 2013 - "If I could I would get rid of this skin. It's like I have 'terrorist' written on my forehead," said a Tuareg friend of mine - let's call him Boubou - here in Mali's capital, Bamako, as he pinched the light brown skin on his arm. "It is not safe here for us."

We had first met a few years ago in Timbuktu, well before the ancient town, along with the rest of northern Mali, had been overrun by a Tuareg separatist rebellion and a loose coalition of Islamist militant groups early last year. Now Boubou, like many Tuareg people, fears a terrible backlash from darker-skinned soldiers and civilians as French forces enable Mali's vengeful army to recapture Timbuktu and other northern towns in the months ahead. "We Tuaregs are finished," he lamented, angrily blaming the MNLA rebels who he insisted had no support among the Tuaregs - themselves a minority group in the north - whom they claimed to represent. But is he right?

As the military campaign here slowly gathers momentum, this fractured country is swirling with all sorts of predictions - both dire and optimistic - about the path head. Here, for what it is worth, is my sense of where things might be going.

Plan in tatters

Mali's humiliated army will be itching to march into Timbuktu - on Saturday if possible. But the French will be anxious to slow them down, waiting for West African troop reinforcements to arrive in central Mali in the next week or so. There is no sense in advancing if your rear is exposed, and so, when they finally get the logistics sorted out, the Nigerians and others will be given the job of patrolling newly recaptured towns, and trying to prevent the Islamist militants from returning.

Chad's army is a case apart - they are highly experienced in desert warfare and will be pushing in from the Niger border towards the eastern town of Gao. There are other reasons for slowing the pace. Mali's ill-disciplined army is already being accused of summary executions and rapes - justifying my friend Boubou's fears of reprisals against Tuaregs. The original international plan had always called for a long military build-up to give European soldiers a chance to retrain the Malians and hopefully minimise human rights abuses by them against civilians. That plan is in tatters now, but a training programme is being accelerated.

Putschists sidelined

 

[waltky]

Granny says dat's `cause the economy is recoverin' so dey gonna spend dat money...

US may give $32M to train African troops in Mali
January 26, 2013 — The Obama administration is seeking an additional $32 million to train African troops to fight Islamic extremists in Mali.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Friday the request had been made to Congress. The United States is not providing any direct aid to the Malian government because the democratically elected president was overthrown in a coup last year.

However, it has been providing aid to the French-led mission, transporting French troops and equipment to Mali. France has some 2,400 forces in the West African nation but says it wants African nations to take the lead in fighting the extremists who rule northern Mali.

The French-led operation began on Jan. 11 after the militants surged southward from their strongholds and took the town of Konna, later recaptured by government forces.

US may give $32M to train African troops in Mali | CNS News

 

[waltky]

UN wantin' to put peacekeeping force in Mali...

UN Considering Peacekeeping Force for Mali
February 06, 2013 — The U.N. Security Council has begun discussing the possibility of deploying a U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali, once Malian and French forces have stabilized the country.

In December, the Security Council authorized the African-led International Support Mission to Mali [AFISMA], to consist of about 3,000 troops from the region. The force was to be dispatched in September or October for a period of one year to help take back northern Mali from Islamist militant groups. But with the Islamist offensive in January and the French military intervention that drove the militants out of their strongholds, diplomats say the situation has changed. They will now seek to transition the nascent AFISMA force, which accelerated its deployment and began arriving in Mali last month, into a mission that is under full U.N. control.

France’s U.N. ambassador, Gérard Araud, told reporters after Wednesday’s private meeting that before the mission can become a peacekeeping force, the situation on the ground must stabilize. “We are not yet deploying a peacekeeping operation. There is the prospect of a peacekeeping operation," said Araud. "It was the first time that I was raising the issue in the Security Council and I was insisting on the fact that the deployment will be possible only when the security circumstances permit. So I think we have to wait several weeks before assessing the security environment and taking the decision of deploying a peacekeeping operation.”

Diplomats said privately that a resolution authorizing a peacekeeping force for Mali is not likely before the end of February. After that it could take about a further two months to “re-hat” the African forces into blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous said his office already is working on all the different possible scenarios for Mali. “This is all being worked upon. But I think the consensus [is] that it will have to be a peacekeeping operation when conditions allow, and that could happen, I think fairly quickly; then that is the way to go,” Ladsous. In addition to a Security Council resolution laying out the size, scope and authority of such a force, the U.N. also would need the authorization of the Malian government as the host country, and the agreement of the African Union and the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS.

Source

 

[waltky]

Pepe le Pew strikes again...

French troops 'dismantle al-Qaeda base'
8 March 2013 - A major al-Qaeda base has been dismantled by French forces in the remote mountains of northern Mali, France's defence minister has said.

Jean-Yves Le Drian said a "very impressive" arsenal of weapons had been recovered from the site, called Ametetai, in the Ifoghas mountains. He also said a French national fighting with the militants had been captured. French President Francois Hollande said earlier this week French troops would begin withdrawing from Mali next month. He said the final phase of military intervention would continue throughout March and be scaled down in April.

'Face-to-face combat'

Mr Le Drian toured Ametetai during his surprise visit to Mali on Thursday. "We knew this part of Mali was potentially the sanctuary of AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), and we weren't wrong," he told Europe 1 radio from Mali. "We're dealing with resolute and heavily-armed terrorists, who are engaging in significant fighting, and we have been able to inflict heavy damage on them."

French troops found weapons "by the tonne," he said, including AK47s, grenade launchers and pick-ups hidden in natural caves. "I hadn't expected this to such an extent," he added. "The search is continuing as of yesterday afternoon in the other valleys, because the whole territory has to be cleaned out completely," he went on to say.

He told Europe 1 that a French national found fighting for the militants had been taken prisoner and would be extradited to France. "This shows," Mr Le Drian said, "that there had been established there a kind of place, a terrorist war network, that could receive youngsters seeking a radical future, as some may have done in Afghanistan or Syria." Ametetai is where Chadian troops said they killed top militant commander Abdelhamid Abou Zeid earlier this week, the BBC's Alex Duval Smith reports from the capital, Bamako.

More BBC News - Mali conflict: French troops 'dismantle al-Qaeda base'

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French Forces Uncover Huge Weapons Stash in Mali Mountains
March 08, 2013 - French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says French troops have discovered a huge arsenal of weapons in the mountains of northern Mali.

Le Drian said at the end of a two-day visit to Mali Friday that it appears al-Qaida-linked extremists were looking to turn the area into a terrorist sanctuary.

He told French radio that the militants established a terrorist war network in Mali aimed at attracting radical-minded youngsters, such as what has been done in Afghanistan and Syria.

French forces entered Mali in January to drive out Islamic extremists who seized control of the north last year. France is planning to wind down its mission and turn it over to an African-led force.

Le Drian says France has completed most of its mission in Mali, but is still encountering some pockets of resistance, including the area outside the city of Gao and the mountains in the north.

Source

 

[waltky]

Sound familiar?...

Mali crisis: France in big offensive against Islamists
8 April 2013 - French forces have launched one their biggest offensives against militants in northern Mali, officials have said.

About 1,000 troops are sweeping through a river valley believed to be a logistics base for the armed Islamists near Gao, AFP news agency reports. This is said to be the last major French-led operation before France starts reducing its military presence. The militants have been driven out of northern cities and towns since France intervened militarily in January. However, the Islamists have carried out several suicide attacks in Gao, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) north of the capital Bamako, and the ancient city of Timbuktu.

Nomad camps

The BBC's West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says the French offensive, called "Operation Gustav", is intended to clear the Gao region of any militants still hiding there and to prevent further attacks on the city. France wants to search as much of the remote region as it can for militant hideouts before it starts scaling down its troops from the end of this month as this the kind of operation that African forces may not be able to carry out once they take over, he says. No Islamist fighters were encountered on the first day of the operation, launched at dawn on Sunday, AFP quotes a journalist travelling with the troops as reporting.

French troops have found 340 artillery shells and high-calibre rocket

The French forces neutralised around 340 artillery shells and high-calibre rockets found stashed under acacia trees in ravines, it reports. French soldiers will spend the coming days combing the 20km valley with the help of Malian soldiers and police officers who will first go into the nomad camps and mud houses which line the dry river basin. "We surrounded the valley north of Gao, which we believe serves as a logistics base for jihadist groups, and we began to search methodically," AFP quotes French land forces commander General Bernard Barrera as saying. "This is the fourth wadi [valley] we have gone into in the Gao region. There will no doubt be other such operations but perhaps not to the same extent."

France plans to start withdrawing the first of its 4,000 troops later this month, and hopes to have only 1,000 soldiers in Mali by the end of the year. The regional African force in Mali currently numbers about 6,300 soldiers. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has suggested that a 11,000-strong UN peace force, made up of African troops, be deployed in Mali, once France reduces its presence. Mr Ban also called for the creation of a second force to fight militants. Remaining French troops could be part of this force, correspondents say.

BBC News - Mali crisis: France in big offensive against Islamists

See also:

Timbuktu fears French troops withdrawal from Mali
8 April 2013 - Malian soldiers advance anxiously in the streets of Timbuktu, a historic Muslim city freed from nine months of Islamist militant rule by French forces in January.

They are on board six pick-up trucks, but they are effectively alone and exposed. They know they are the primary targets for suicide bombers, who have been targeting several towns in the north that were rapidly recaptured in the first phase of the French-led intervention. None of the soldiers crammed onto the vehicles wear a bulletproof vest, and fewer than half have a helmet on. They are sitting amidst drums of fuel, sleeping mats and cooking pots.

Thomas Fessy in Timbuktu reports on fears over the French withdrawal

This poorly equipped army is asked to defend the city, but the soldiers themselves acknowledge they cannot do it alone. "We asked the French to come and help us," says Colonel Seydou Kone, the commanding officer, referring to the last fighting that rocked the city on 30 March-1 April. After a night of non-stop gun battles against a group of Islamist militants, Malian soldiers found themselves completely overwhelmed. "It is fair to say that we couldn't have made it without the French," Col Kone confessed. At least two jihadi fighters had managed to enter a small house located on the side of an army camp.

A Malian soldier was killed when he went in, thinking the militants had already been taken down. The French then destroyed the house, which was transformed into a pile of rubble. The bodies of two militants were rotting under the sun when we got there. The soldier's corpse was still trapped under the debris. People were chopping down the surrounding trees to give the soldiers more visibility in case militants tried to sneak into the camp again.

Lost in the dunes

 

[blackcherry]

You are simply seeing a further type of US invasion .
American Political Strategy defined Nigeria as a top 10 countries target many years ago .
Mali and other near nations are simply part of the softening up exercise the US has devised for NATO

Though there is only one permanent U.S. military base in Africa -- in Djibouti -- smaller drone hubs exist across the continent. A key hub of the spy-drone program is stationed in Burkina Faso, one of the world's most impoverished nations; and a Predator-drone base was recently approved for Niger, an oil-rich country north of Nigeria. Several hundred Special Forces already operate in Niger, and according to the Pentagon, the drones are only meant to conduct surveillance of al-Qaida-linked organizations. Yet drone-launched missile attacks have not been ruled out.
Don't overcomplicate what is essentially simple situation , imho .
It's just Terrorist America on the march again and using other countries as fronts in their destabilisation programmes .

 

[High_Gravity]

You are simply seeing a further type of US invasion .
American Political Strategy defined Nigeria as a top 10 countries target many years ago .
Mali and other near nations are simply part of the softening up exercise the US has devised for NATO

Though there is only one permanent U.S. military base in Africa -- in Djibouti -- smaller drone hubs exist across the continent. A key hub of the spy-drone program is stationed in Burkina Faso, one of the world's most impoverished nations; and a Predator-drone base was recently approved for Niger, an oil-rich country north of Nigeria. Several hundred Special Forces already operate in Niger, and according to the Pentagon, the drones are only meant to conduct surveillance of al-Qaida-linked organizations. Yet drone-launched missile attacks have not been ruled out.
Don't overcomplicate what is essentially simple situation , imho .
It's just Terrorist America on the march again and using other countries as fronts in their destabilisation programmes .

Can you read faggot? the French are the ones in Mali not the US. Go suck a dick and shut the fuck up, grown folks are talking.

 

[waltky]

23 prisoners with ties to rebels freed...

Mali Leader Dissolves Army Reform Panel
October 03, 2013 — The president of Mali dissolved a committee that was formed to reform the army and the government has freed 23 prisoners with rebel ties, in a move that could reopen negotiations with the MNLA rebel group.

Clashes this week in the Malian rebel stronghold of Kidal, and a mutiny at the Kati military camp outside the capital, forced President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to cut short an official visit to France. The president had harsh words for the unruly soldiers and rebels but said he remains committed to reform and dialogue. The flare-ups at Kati and in Kidal served as bitter reminders that, while France may have declared victory against jihadist groups once in control of the north, the rebellion and subsequent military coup of early 2012 that sunk Mali into crisis still hang like shadows over the country.

Members of the former junta at the Kati military camp fired their weapons and took an army colonel hostage Monday, saying they were passed over during a recent round of promotions. Keita told the nation he will "not tolerate indiscipline and anarchy." The president said an investigation is under way and called the mutiny a "slap in the face to the country" at a time when soldiers from other countries are "coming to our soil to defend us, some of them to the point of ultimate sacrifice." Keita, who has broad-based support in the military, said he remains committed to overhauling the armed forces which analysts say are severely dysfunctional and undertrained.

Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita delivers a speech on Oct. 2, 2013. in Bamako.

The president said he is dissolving what critics have said is a largely ineffectual army reform committee run by ex-junta chief Amadou Sanogo, who was promoted from the rank of captain to general by the former interim government just before Keita took office. "Kati will no longer intimidate Bamako, or at least not Koulouba," the president said, referring to the site of the presidential palace. He also said he is giving notice to "all those in Kidal who continue this blackmail, violence and violation of the June 18 Ouagadougou accord." Malian soldiers and MNLA rebels clashed in the rebel stronghold of Kidal Sunday and Monday. Both sides accuse the other of striking first. Tensions have been high in Kidal since the MNLA pulled out of the peace process in September, saying the government was not living up to the terms of that cease-fire deal signed in June.

Keita is calling them back to the table, saying he is committed to improving the system of decentralization. "My hand remains outstretched," Keita said. "Brothers, set aside your Kalashnikovs, which bring no future, and come to dialogue." According to the terms of the Ouagadougou accords, regionally mediated talks were to begin in early November, 60 days after Keita took office. The president has said he will not consider independence or any form of semi-autonomy for the north, something that the MNLA has said is unacceptable. However, the Malian government did free 23 MNLA prisoners on Wednesday per the terms of the Ouagadougou accord, a move that could re-open the road to negotiations.

Mali Leader Dissolves Army Reform Panel

 

[ScienceRocks]

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