airdrop French army 17th RGP Parachute Engineer Regiment Timbuktu Airport

French armed forces have taken the control of the airport in Kidal

Islamic fighters in Mali on the retreat

Tuesday night, January 29, 2013 the French armed forces force in Mali assumed control over the airport of the city of Kidal, which has been under the radical Islamists’ control until recently. This has been confirmed by an official of the Touareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, which reported this Monday about the liberation of Kidal from Islamic fighters.

French army spokesman Col Thierry Burkhard confirmed that "French elements were deployed overnight in Kidal". After the military operations on Timbukutu, French and Malian forces strengthen their positions in this area.

In Timbuktu, a new airborne operation was made with air drop of French soldiers of the 17e RGP (17th Engineer Parachute Regiment) with equipment to carry out the clearance of the runway and thus help to restore air traffic on the airport of the city. In Gao, the French Malian soldiers continue patrols around the city to prevent the return of the rebels.

In Dakar, French soldiers of the 92e RI (92nd Infantry Regiment) with VBCI armoured infantry fighting vehicles and the 1er RIMa (1st Marine Infantry Regiment) with AMX-10RCR 6x6 reconnaissance armoured vehicles continue to unload their equipment and then take the road to Mali.

African contingents reached the number of 2,900 soldiers including 1,400 Chadians, 500 Nigeriens, 400 Togolese, 200 Nigerians, 150 Burkinabe,100 Beninese and 50 Senegalese.

The Chadian armed forces have left their base of Menaka and headed towards the north of the country to support the work of the French troops in this area. At the same time the first soldiers of the Nigerien battalion have entered the town of Ansongo to take position.

French Army Operation Serval Foreign forces make more advances in Mali

France sends more armoured vehicles in Mali to answer the strong resistance of Islamist rebels.

French troops’ initial clashes with Islamist militants in Mali have shown that the desert fighters are better trained and equipped than France had anticipated before last week’s military intervention, French and other U.N. diplomats said.

Why do they cover their faces? Also vehicle seems to be designed and made by infidels

The diplomats were speaking after French forces had their first encounters with Islamist fighters in recent days. The ground war appeared headed for escalation on Thursday as French troops surrounded the town of Diabaly, trapping rebels who had seized it three days ago.

French, Malian and African forces are facing off against an Islamist coalition that includes al Qaeda’s North African wing, AQIM, and the homegrown Ansar Dine and MUJWA militants. The motley mix of Tuareg rebels, Islamists and foreign jihadists has been united by the threat of foreign military intervention, which the Security Council called for last month.

Some of the militants are believed to have been trained and armed by the government of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed by rebels in a 2011 civil war.

Mirage 2000D briefing take-off for air strikes against Islamist rebels Mali operations

The first armoured vehicles of the French Army ready for Operation Serval in MaliMore than 800 French soldiers with armoured vehicles are deployed near Bamako airport

The first armoured vehicles of the French Army ready for Operation Serval in Mali

Since the night of January 13, 2013, the French Armed Forces in Mali continued its bombing raids with a total of 20 air missions with Mirage 2000D and Rafale fighter aircraft stationed in N'Djamena, Chad. These operations have enabled the attack of a dozen targets primarily on the cities of Diabali and Douenza.

Al Qaeda Islamic fighters carve out own country in Mali, prepare to defend it

Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic extremist fighters have been burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defenses to protect what has essentially become Al Qaeda's new country. They have used the bulldozers, earth movers and Caterpillar machines left behind by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials describe as an elaborate network of tunnels, trenches, shafts and ramparts. In just one case, inside a cave large enough to drive trucks into, they have stored up to 100 drums of gasoline, guaranteeing their fuel supply in the face of a foreign intervention, according to experts.
Now that intervention is here. On Friday, France deployed 550 troops and launched air strikes against the Islamists in northern Mali, starting battle in what is currently the biggest territory in the world held by Al Qaeda and its allies. But the fighting has been harder than expected, and the extremists boast it will be worse than the decade-old struggle in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda never owned Afghanistan," said former United Nations diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by Al Qaeda's local chapter, whose fighters now control the main cities in the north. "They do own northern Mali." Al Qaeda's affiliate in Africa — Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM — has been a shadowy presence for years in the forests and deserts of Mali, a country hobbled by poverty and a relentless cycle of hunger. Last year the terror syndicate and its allies took advantage of political instability in Mali to push out of their hiding place and into the towns, taking over an enormous territory larger than France or Texas — and almost exactly the size of Afghanistan.
The catalyst for the Islamic fighters was a military coup nine months ago by disgruntled soldiers, which transformed Mali from a once-stable nation to the failed state it is today. The fall of the nation's democratically elected government at the hands of junior officers destroyed the military's command-and-control structure, creating the vacuum which allowed a mix of rebel groups to move in.
After the international community debated for months over what to do, the United Nations Security Council called for a military intervention on condition that an exhaustive list of pre-emptive measures be taken, starting with training the Malian military. All that changed in a matter of hours last week, when French intelligence services spotted two rebel convoys heading south toward the towns of Segou and Mopti. Had either town fallen, many feared the Islamists would advance toward the capital, Bamako.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/14/al-qaida-carves-out-own-country-in-mali-prepares-to-defend-it/#ixzz2I6gurAjZ

French army starts military operations to support Mali troops countering Islamist rebels offensive

European military aircraft with weapons and soldiers on board arrives in Mali to fight Islamic militants/jihadis/rebels

Mali extremist and terrorist groups are advancing further into government-held territories after they captured the key nothern city of Konna on Thursday. Meanwhile Mali's President Dioncounda Traore has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a similar letter to French President Francois Hollande seeking assistance against the offensive.

According to witnesses cited by news agencies a military aircraft carrying weapons and foreign soldiers has arrived at an army base in Sevare in central Mali, not far from the captured town of Konna.

One witness at the airport reported seeing weapons and soldiers leaving a C-160 military transport aircraft.

The Malian defense ministry said it would hold a news conference on the situation on Friday.

One unnamed Malian official confirmed the arrival of the military aircraft and said the aircraft arrived from a European country.

On Thursday al Qaeda-linked rebels drove the Malian army out of the strategic northern town of Konna. It became a major setback to government forces trying to dislodge the Islamists from the northern territory of Mali which they captured in April 2012.

The UN Security Council held emergency talks on Mali on Thursday amid growing international concerns Islamist forces may use the country as a launch pad to stage attacks. The Council called on U.N. member states "to provide assistance to the Malian Defense and Security Forces in order to reduce the threat posed by terrorist organizations and associated groups."

After the meeting France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters the groups who captured the city of Konna Thursday are now threatening the city of Mopti, which has 100,000 inhabitants. He also declined to say how his country would respond to Mali President's request, telling reporters a decision would be announced in Paris on Friday.

On December 22, 2012 the UN Security Council authorized an African-led force to support Malian forces in recovering the north but set no timeline for military action. Instead it set out benchmarks to be met before the start of offensive operations.

Mali was plunged into crisis by a March 2012 coup which allowed Tuareg rebels, who have long felt marginalized by Mali's government, to seize the north. But months later, the rebels were kicked out by Islamist groups allied with al-Qaida, which have imposed strict Shariah law throughout the north.

The story of the French disengagement

The last flight of French fighting forces left Kabul. It will take six months to repatriate all 1200 vehicles and containers as much of the French army.

Do not tell them that the coalition of forty-seven NATO countries will never overcome these insurgents of all stripes beard. International jihadists, Taliban local interests and objectives fuzzy variables, Mujahideen hardened by a life of war, here are the masters of the majestic mountains and rocky valleys.

" The insurgents have still picked up well. The average age of Taliban commanders has dropped from 31 to 27 years , "says an officer, without being able to check the reliability of the statistical deadly. And interest because it is better to go to the old to negotiate rather than young dogs crazy. It adds a slightly bitter observation: " It was the right time to go. For them and for us. Before the Afghans see us as enemy aliens, as the occupier. "

The French leave (pictured, a convoy carrying VAB to the storage area of Kabul airport) and the future of Afghanistan remains unresolved. " The region was occupied by the French (district of Surobi and Kapisa) is now led by the Afghan National Army (ANA). And the insurgents have not taken the hand. This is evidence of their effectiveness , "says Colonel Antonelli, head of the training mission Epidote.

Further down in ranks, we find less convinced. " The Afghan soldiers are tough but the evil I do not give them five years before getting to defend Kabul , "said Master Corporal Loïc original douaisienne. Camp Warehouse, east of Kabul, where are grouped the ultimate French forces, "the leader" of poker or karaoke evenings of the 1st company of the 35th Infantry Regiment Belfort would have stayed a few more months. For compensation multiplied by more than two according to rank and marital status, and not subject to income tax ...

To the exit from the death of Osama bin Laden

But we must return one day. Eleven years after the first steps of special forces or agents of the DGSE on Afghan soil. War must have a meaning. This is the output from the death of bin Laden in May 2011.

The French army has gained a technological leap (the lattice to surveillance drone) and hardening in a country hostile group. She lost 88 men. It is not. This is huge.

In this bright and glossy Sunday in December on the plateau of Kabul (1800 m), Warrant Officer Denis, of the 16th Infantry Battalion of Bitche, thirty-two years in the army in counter is not angry to return home with two hundred comrades Fire Task Force La Fayette. They just spent seven months in Kapisa. They closed the forward base of Tagab September 30, the Nijrab November 25. The guys will be able to steel battalion blow.

" The pressure Tagab was permanent. But the man gets used to everything. As the camp was on a slope, there were three tracks discovered that avoided taking. It is still made ​​"ICT-er" several times , "says the sergeant at the foot of the A340 of Air Force departure. An ICT in NATO jargon, it is a snap (French acronym for Troops in Contact ).

A professional army does not fight an army insensitive. If the closure of the forward bases have generally passed without incident, the sergeant Denis remembers the departure of Tagab: " At the end of the village, a pilot VAB (armored vehicle from the front) has seen him right a rocket. He said : "It is for me. Just when we leave." Fortunately, it was at the end of the race and its sting incandescent collided at the bottom of the box. A little higher and it was good. "

The driver needed to speak, made ​​of chargepar shrinks. The post-traumatic syndrome can be an enemy soldier inside the back of OPEX (external operation). The decompression chamber to Paphos in Cyprus has been created for it. Three days to relax in a comfortable hotel - " five stars here, two star Palavas "- to regain its footing with normal life -" it's very funny, a shower and toilet in the room! "- to speak group with experts ...

This is where we discovered the silent suffering of men who were inside the VAB to Tagab. Unlike the pilot, they had not seen the rocket fall on their vehicle. They slept in more ...

" When we closed Nijrab was a sort of pre-sas after Tagab pleasant Warrant Officer Denis. Warehouse camp in Kabul, it was almost the holidays. Now Paphos. According to those who have already passed, it is a good thing. It allows to decompress, to ask before returning to the family. "Normal life.

During this time in Kabul, meticulous repatriation of equipment continues. Intensely. With two or three jumbo Antonov day by rushing into their mouths gyms flying the VAB VBCI, Caesar cannons, helicopters ... Specialists Air Detachment Kabul airport feel in time: half of 1200 vehicles and containers that leave much to France. In order.

Sheer poetry as the Rafale goes about its business