Ripples from Mali: events plus outside Mali

[M-A Lagrange]

After the quick progression, comes the time for search and destroy...

Mali: the battle continues Iforas, 30 Islamists killed in the operation

Operation "Panther IV", "continues" and "progress." This was said Thursday the staff of the French army. Monday started, this operation is to dislodge the Islamists in the region of the Adrar des Iforas in north-eastern Mali. "This is not just a progression, it is also quite favorable search this area is that people can hide. Should therefore avoid exceeding the terrorist positions and have people in the back, it is therefore a thorough enough search, "said the spokesman of the General Staff, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, at the weekly press briefing of defense.

"It is estimated that twenty terrorists were neutralized in the first place attachment" on Tuesday, in which Harold died Legionnaire Vormezeele. Wednesday, a little further east, "a little less than a dozen terrorists" have in turn been announced Thierry Burkhard, bringing the death toll on the side of jihadist thirty dead.

The previous count, announced Wednesday by Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was 25 Islamists killed. Several ammunition depots were also destroyed, according to the staff. A wide Mali entire Staff announcement "about 200 sorties" from Thursday, February 14, with "sixty" carried about by hunters, although they are not necessarily made of keystrokes, at we said.

A "ten goals" have been destroyed by air strikes, mainly carried out by fighters but also some by helicopter, according to Colonel Burkhard. These "targets" were mainly in the region of the Adrar des Ifoghas but also in the region Bourem. These are "half" of logistics sites that have been destroyed, but also "an armored reconnaissance and four pick-up," he said. Weapons caches were discovered and several rocket-propelled vehicles were recovered.

En savoir plus sur http://www.atlantico.fr/pepites/mali...YMbxZpOL1EF.99

[davidbfpo]

Marc,

I look forward to the elucidation of:

....several rocket-propelled vehicles were recovered.

Yes I know it probably means somthing else. Certain interests will welcome the 'rocket propelled vehicles gap'.

[M-A Lagrange]

Marc,

I look forward to the elucidation of:

Yes I know it probably means somthing else. Certain interests will welcome the 'rocket propelled vehicles gap'.

OK, the original was: several vehicles equiped with rocket launchers.
The beauty of google...

[jmm99]

The Ontos ...



Alas, there has been an Ontos Gap since 1969.

Regards

Mike

[davidbfpo]

Michael Wills gives some context in a short blog:http://www.hurstpublishers.com/islam...saharan-sahel/

The surge in international interest in the Saharan Sahel region of Africa following the French-led intervention in Mali and especially the attack on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria by armed Islamists has drawn attention to the links between these incidents and the conflict in Algeria in the 1990s.

As for AQIM, before Al Amenas:

nothing could disguise the fact that AQIM was a shadow of its Algerian forebears.

[KingJaja]

Interesting read from the WSJ.

As a Nigerian, I can tell you upfront that the Nigerian Army bristles at "being told what to do" by the US Army (or any Western Army). This article validates that.

Secondly, nobody in the Nigerian government wants wide swathes of the Nigerian Military to be trained by a foreign power - especially when US trained officers have a reputation for going back home and executing successful coups.

KUMBOTSO, Nigeria—The shooting clattered on for 30 minutes, residents of this dusty town say, and when it ended, four militants holding a German engineer hostage were dead.

So were the engineer, and four innocent bystanders.

In vast West Africa, a new front-line region in the battle against al Qaeda, Nigeria is America's strategic linchpin, its military one the U.S. counts on to help contain the spread of Islamic militancy. Yet Nigeria has rebuffed American attempts to train that military, whose history of shooting freely has U.S. officials concerned that soldiers here fuel the very militancy they are supposed to counter.

It is just one example of the limits to what is now American policy for policing troubled parts of the world: to rely as much as possible on local partners.

The U.S. and Nigerian authorities don't fully trust each other, limiting cooperation against the threat. And U.S. officials say they are wary of sharing highly sensitive intelligence with the Nigerian government and security services for fear it can't be safeguarded. Nigerian officials concede militants have informants within the government and security forces.

For the U.S., though, cooperation with Nigeria is unavoidable. The country is America's largest African trading partner and fifth-largest oil supplier. Some 30,000 Americans work here. Nigeria has by far the biggest army in a region where al Qaeda has kidnapped scores of Westerners, trained local militants to rig car bombs and waged war across an expanse of Mali the size of Texas. Last month, al Qaeda-linked extremists' attack on a natural-gas plant in faraway Algeria left at least 37 foreigners dead

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...155502840.html

[M-A Lagrange]

First of all, I would like to draw your attention to the 2 videos the French army released about the Malian conflict. This is interesting because it is the first images of the conflict from the French Army which has ordered a full black out on that conflict.
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/...combats_885922

Now some news. Part from the death of a 3rd French soldier, French government is very cautious about the death of 2 high targets from AQMI.

Dead Abu Zeid and Elmokhtar: Chad maintains the Drian urges cautionBelmokhtar death, which had claimed the attack site in January Algerian gas Amenas, followed by a hostage repressed by the army in Algeria, where 37 foreign and Algerian died, like Abu Zeid, was not confirmed by the French authorities, who are very discreet, or in Bamako and Algiers. "No comment" , it was said laconically Saturday at the French presidency. "We want it can be verified, it is a matter of time. were not able to confirm " , a source explained Sunday at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs .
Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of Defence himself Sunday called the"prudence" in an interview with the Depeche du Midi made public by his ministry, Mr. Le Drian, questioned these proclamations Chadian replies "A rumor repeated the environment is no information, and the Minister of Defence should not speak in the conditional. I call for caution and a sense of responsibility with respect to information that we are not able to confirm material at this stage " .

I also call for caution with the google translation...