Watch as it Develops - The Staged War Against Islamists in Northern Mali

International backing for French forces battling Islamist militants in Mali gathered momentum Tuesday


The U.S. mission began Monday with two flights and is expected to continue for several days, U.S. Africa Command spokesman Chuck Prichard told CNN from Stuttgart.

U.S. C-17 planes are taking off from southern France loaded with French cargo and dropping it off in the Malian capital, Bamako, he said...

Italy's lower house of parliament approved sending 15 to 24 military instructors who will work alongside the European Union in training Malian forces. It also agreed to provide logistical support to include at least two cargo planes. The time frame for Italy to provide the assistance is not yet decided.

Leaders from several other countries have already offered troops or logistical support. Canada and Britain are deploying military transport aircraft, while Nigeria is set to deploy soldiers as part of the U.N.-mandated African force to fight the insurgents.

Meanwhile, the battle continues to push back rebel forces on the ground.

On the road between Segou and Bamako on Tuesday, a CNN crew saw a large column of French mechanized infantry barreling toward northern Mali.

Dozens of armored fighting vehicles packed with supplies appeared headed for the front line of the battle against Islamist fighters

[link to edition.cnn.com]

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says "dialogue is not possible at this time" with Mali's Islamic insurgents and that the solution to the unrest in the west African country will ultimately depend on political, diplomatic and military means.

The U.N. chief on Tuesday also praised France's military intervention in Mali...

Read more: [link to www.sfgate.com]

Thierry Meyssan seems to agree that Algeria is the real target here in an article of his yesterday. Like him or not he knows a thing or two, he was the first western journalist to expose the "Libyan rebels" hoax and the first to expose 9/11 attacks in 2002.


A long time in the making and announced by François Hollande six months in advance, the French intervention in Mali was portrayed as an emergency decision in response to dramatic developments. This scheme aims not only at seizing Mali’s gold and uranium, but more especially at paving the way for the destabilization of Algeria.
[link to www.voltairenet.org]

As French soldiers pour into Mali in the fight to push back the advancing Islamist militants, questions have been raised as to the motives behind the intervention. Author William Engdahl told RT the US was using France as a scapegoat to save face. Another analyst believes that France simply cannot finance this war.

[link to rt.com]

Hi IFUN,

The Tuareg live in an area that extends from Western Libya through Southern Algeria, into Western Niger & Northern Mali and includes parts of Burkina Faso.

The specific Tuareg tribes that were involved in the Malian uprising (Ifoghas & Imghad) live in Northern Mali and Western Algeria (centered around towns of Tessalit & Kidal).

In Libya, Tuareg lived around Ghat, Ghadames, and Aw Bari. There was an annual festival in Ghadames which celebrated Tuareg culture.

Here's a pic from 2007 of Tuareg girls attending the festival in Ghadames -
[link to www.flickr.com]

Note - Gaddafi imported a large number of Tuareg from Mali & Niger to fight in his Islamic Corps. but there were/are indigenous Libyan Tuareg. Things are great for them. Today, Ghadames is under siege, surrounded by militia men from Zintan. There are recent Libya Herald articles on the siege.

Sorry - things are NOT great for them...

Hi Darby, hope all is well. Yeah i know that there are some in Libya too but the numbers according to official stats are something like 20 thousand in Libya from a 1.2 million total, one of the smallest populations in the region. Tuareg minority rights are recognized by both Algeria and Libya (at least under Gaddafi) for years now, Mali and Niger haven't recognized their rights yet, thus the continuous struggle against their southern govts.

Don't trust official numbers from a Libyan census - they intentionally undercounted all Amazigh groups & over counted some Arabized tribes...

No one even has an accurate figure for the total population of Libya...

Tunisia - Rear Base for Mali's Jihadists

For jihadists in northern Mali, Tunisia is of strategic importance. For months, the country of the revolution turned into a base for recruitment and deployment of new fighters. Young people often attracted by a form of pure Sharia, but also by the prospect of a jihad against those they call "French crusaders."

According to,sources,there are nearly 300 Tunisian jihadists in northern Mali. Tunisian authorities, in contrast, reports that there are only fifty men. Most arrived well before the French strikes, but they stimulate jihad now dreams of many candidates motivated by calls for holy war launched in several major mosques in Tunisia and on the internet, where French interests are routinely designated as a target.

But if Tunisia is also strategic for the jihadists in Mali, it is because it serves as a corridor, in the words of President Moncef Marzouki. A corridor for transporting arms coming from Libya via Algeria. These weapons first passed through the northern mountains - where two cells of thirty men belonging to AQIM were dismantled in December - but also the southernmost desert, near the Sahara.


[link to translate.google.com]

NO charge for US Support

The United States will not demand payment from France for the use of U.S. transport planes ferrying French forces and equipment to Mali, the Pentagon said Jan. 22.

“We’re not asking for compensation or reimbursement from the French,” spokesman George Little told reporters.

“The focus right now is not on money but is on achieving our shared goal of holding militants in northern Mali.”

An initial arrangement had assumed the French would reimburse Washington for airlifting troops, tanks and other hardware to Mali but the Americans have since dropped that requirement, a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

[link to www.defensenews.com]

Not Libya census, Minority Rights Group International, i think that they are the oldest in the minority game worldwide, 40+ years. Even if they're a little more than that my point is that the Tuareg population is mainly in Niger and Mali after that. They have very few people in all neighboring countries.

Malian forces on Tuesday held control of the strategic town that was under extreme Islamist rule for four months, as the French-led military intervention pushed northward in its second week.
[link to english.ahram.org.eg]


We never hear about losses, casualties, injuries etc. either military or civilian ones. Strange conflict and media blackout.

Last Edited by insertfunnyusername on 01/22/2013 06:40 PM

Snip; 22 January 2013 – The United Nations refugee agency today reported that the number of people fleeing the fighting in Mali is increasing, amidst reports of growing food shortages.

“New arrivals continue to tell us they left their homes because of air strikes and fighting, as well as fears over the application of Sharia law; they also speak of increasing shortages of food and fuel, with traditional markets unable to operate,”


Snip2; Including those displaced this month, some 147,000 Malians have found refuge in neighbouring countries since the crisis in Mali started in January last year, according to UNHCR. Inside the country, 229,000 people have been displaced – mainly from Kidal, Timbuktu, and Gao.

UN link for what it is worth.

[link to www.un.org]

Allegations of Human Rights Abuses by Malian Soldiers Continue to Come in.

The beginning of a new phase of the Serval (which takes its name from an African cat) was nevertheless accompanied by denunciations for serious violations of human rights allegedly committed by the Malian soldiers. Troops Bamako, according to the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), would have been guilty of a series of executions since January 10 in the central cities of Sevare, Mopti and Nioro, as well as other areas where fighting rages were the days. In the capital, the FIDH reported looting and intimidation in many homes Malian Tuareg origin. FIDH called the Malian authorities, French and the international community to create an independent commission of inquiry to clarify these crimes. "There is a real danger that the Tuareg are victims of massacres and other abuses, not only from the Malian army but also some self-defense militias formed by other ethnic groups in Mali, as Ganda Ganda Izo and Koi, "warned Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of the section of the organization Human Rights Watch. Facing such a danger, more concrete gradually as the frontline moves Azawad Malian MPs from the North have appealed to different communities in Malian society, inviting not to put against each other and not be influenced negatively, noting that Mali is a country of "coexistence and forgiveness.

[link to translate.google.com]

Nigerian Leader Goodluck Jonathan in Davos Warns of Mali Terror Spillover


[link to abcn.ws]

Picture of French soldier wearing skull scarf from Call of Duty video game goes viral, France forced to respond -

'We are not messengers of death in Mali', says French colonel -

[link to www.independent.co.uk]

What a tard.

UK special forces active in Mali

Small team is providing non-combat support during French military action against jihadi groups in country, says sourceA small number of UK special forces soldiers are already on the ground in Mali helping to co-ordinate and advise the French military effort against the jihadi groups in the north.They are part of a team of British military and MI6 personnel in the country who are providing support to French commanders.

[link to news.apsou.gr]

Last Edited by insertfunnyusername on 01/23/2013 06:44 PM

A guy i follow says that the French face huge problems in administrative work and intelligence dept and asked help from US coz they lack long range capabilities. They also ask for US drones but US doesn't seem willing to give them for now.

Last Edited by insertfunnyusername on 01/23/2013 06:36 PM

The Pentagon spokesman George Little said Tuesday that U.S. armed forces have had limited involvement in the French military mission in Mali.



Pentagon says U.S. involvement in Mali limited
[link to english.sina.com]

A very interesting find by Chrit that goes back half a year.

On July 8 the Washington Post reported the story of the April 20 death of three U.S. Special Operations Forces service members in Mali, a North African country known for a growing Islamic insurgency, and more recently the scene of a coup in March. The soldiers’ deaths are believed to be the result of vehicle accident, as their rented Toyota Land Cruiser went off a bridge in the pre-dawn hours, and plunged into the Niger River.

[link to www.policymic.com]

We've been on the Mali trail for awhile ...

On the 1st page of this thread is link & long excerpt from the July 8th Washington Post article.

Thread: Watch as it Develops - The Staged War Against Islamists in Northern Mali (7th post on the Thread)

That article was one of the main reasons I started this thread...

Thanks Darby, time goes by fast.

Last Edited by insertfunnyusername on 01/23/2013 07:01 PM

It is a very telling read.




I'll also add about the drones, only one US agency is allowed to operate armed drones and fire on targets without US troops on the ground to confirm the target, it is not the US military.

Thanks for bringing the article back up. It's a really long piece & I've never mentioned what set me off...

Three US soldiers will killed in a car crash. Moroccan prostitutes were supposedly also killed in the car. So, the official story makes them look like sleaze bags who died while while drinking and whoring. However, the guys were special ops guys & whatever they were doing when they died, they were posthumously awarded medals. The article has several interviews w/ family/friends who know the official story is BS but also realize they'll never know the truth. I think it's awful that these men were killed, defamed, and that there are families who will never know what happened to their loved ones.

Everytime I meet someone who claims to be "in the know" I ask about the Bamako car crash. I've never gotten an answer.

US excuse is that they don't have any active military base with specialized airports in the region at the moment.

Holy Crap - The Unified theory of Islamist Conspiracies

Several of the Egyptians who took part in the attack in Amenas Algeria were also present during the attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi according to Algerian government officials...

...If confirmed, the link between two of the most brazen assaults in recent memory would reinforce the transborder character of the jihadist groups now striking across the Sahara. American officials have long warned that the region’s volatile mix of porous borders, turbulent states, weapons and ranks of fighters with similar ideologies creates a dangerous landscape in which extremists are trying to collaborate across vast distances...


[link to nyti.ms]

Plot thickens, nice.

I’ll rephrase it for them “were not willing to give up the location of our unguarded airstrip for this cause at this time.“

And Darby, the only thing I know for sure is they were not prostitutes.


Chapter 13 art of war.

Last Edited by Chrit on 01/23/2013 07:27 PM