French troops clash with Islamists in 'real war' in Mali

French and Malian troops clashed with Islamist rebels near the large town of Gao, Paris said on Wednesday after reporting that hundreds of insurgents had been killed in a "real war" to reclaim northern Mali.

French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the extremist rebels, who have been driven from key strongholds which they had controlled in northern Mali for 10 months, struck back at troops with rocket fire on Tuesday.

"There were clashes yesterday around Gao," Le Drian said on Europe 1 radio. "Once our troops, supported by Malian forces, started patrols around the towns that we have taken, they met residual jihadist groups who are still fighting.

"We will go after them. We are securing the towns we have been able to take along with the Malian forces. The jihadists around Gao were using rockets yesterday."

One of the militant groups, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) said it had attacked military positions in Gao, the largest city in the north.

"The combat isn't over. The attacks are going to continue," MUJAO's Abou Dardar told AFP.

The Malian army arrested two young men in Gao's market Wednesday who were brandishing two grenades and a pistol, though it was unclear "whether they planned to commit an attack or wanted to use the weapons for robbery", a police spokesman said.

On Tuesday, Le Drian said "several hundred" al-Qaida-linked militants had been killed by French air strikes as well as "direct combat" in the key central and northern towns of Konna and Gao.

"This is a real war with significant losses but I'm not going to get into an accounting exercise," he said Wednesday when asked about the toll.

France's sole fatality so far has been a helicopter pilot killed at the start of the military operation 27 days ago.

Mali said 11 of its troops were killed and 60 wounded after the battle at Konna last month but has not since released a new death toll.

The United Nations said Wednesday it had regained access for aid operations in central Mali, and hoped to soon be able to move into the north, where security was still a concern.

"We could have access over coming days," said David Gressly, who steers UN humanitarian operations in the region, adding that some 500,000 people were facing hunger in the north.

France launched its surprise intervention in the former French colony on January 11 as a triad of Islamist groups that had seized control of the north in the aftermath of a military coup pushed south toward the capital.

Nearly 4,000 French troops have deployed, a number that will not be increased, Le Drian said.
With Paris keen to pass the baton to some 8,000 African troops pledged for Mali, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said soldiers would begin withdrawing "in March, if all goes as planned".

Hollande confirms March withdrawal
President Francois Hollande confirmed that timeline, with a government spokeswoman telling journalists: "The president confirmed this morning that if everything goes to plan, the number of French troops in Mali will begin to fall from the month of March."

Hollande, whose surprise decision to intervene in Mali won him a hero's welcome there on Saturday, had said during his whirlwind visit that France will stay as long as it takes.

The Islamists have put up little resistance, many of them fleeing to the Adrar des Ifoghas massif around Kidal, a craggy mountain landscape honeycombed with caves where they are believed to be holding seven French hostages.

Kidal, the last key bastion of the Islamists, is now under control of French forces and some 1,800 Chadian troops, but fighter jets continue to pound the region around the remote desert outpost.

Meanwhile a Tuareg separatist rebel group that kickstarted Mali's descent into chaos with a rebellion for independence last year said it is working with France against "terrorists" in the region.

The Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) linked up with the radical Islamists in its bid to secure independence for the desert nomad Tuareg people, who have long felt marginalized by Mali's government.

But after being chased from their strongholds by the extremists, they have voiced a willingness to negotiate since France intervened.

The MNLA said on Wednesday it had retaken the town of Menaka, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Niger border, which Nigerien troops had taken from militant occupiers but then left as they continued their advance.

Le Drian said France had "functional relations" with the group in Kidal but that fighting terrorists alongside them was "not our objective."

Mali: France seeks UN peacekeeping role

The African-led mission in Mali should become a UN peacekeeping operation as soon as possible, France has told the UN Security Council.

French forces were deployed nearly a month ago to combat al-Qaeda-linked militants who had taken over Mali's desert northern regions.

But Paris says it wants to begin pulling out its 4,000 troops in March.

It wants planning for a transition to begin now so a handover can be completed in April.

"From the moment that security is assured, we can envisage without changing the structures that it can be placed under the framework of UN peacekeeping operations," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

The French ambassador to the UN had raised the matter for the first time at the Security Council on Wednesday, he told reporters.

France wants the UN force to help stabilise Mali and seek an end to long-standing rivalry between ethnic Tuaregs and Arabs.

 

'Real war'

Earlier, the French defence minister said troops were engaged in a "real war" with "terrorists" around the Malian town of Gao.

The town is a former militant stronghold where troops are reported to have found stores of explosives and other military materials.

Islamist militants were swept from Gao last month, but Jean-Yves Le Drian said clashes were continuing in the area.

The Mali militants have been routed and cleared from most of the population centres.

But clashes are continuing away from the towns.

"When you leave the centre of captured cities, you meet jihadis left behind," Mr Le Drian told France's Europe 1 Radio.

Reporters say heavy bombardment could be heard in the centre of the city on Tuesday, with a French helicopter patrolling.

He says it seems the French intervened after militants tried to launch a rocket attack on a Malian military camp.

Eyewitnesses said French and African troops had left their military base in Gao on Wednesday morning and were heading towards the town of Ansongo, towards the border with Niger, our correspondent adds.

 

Vast desert

Earlier this week, French forces accompanied by hundreds of troops from Chad cleared fighters from the last rebel stronghold, the town of Kidal.

Mr Le Drian also insisted that the 4,000 French troops currently deployed would be the maximum number in Mali.

Islamist rebels overran towns in Mali's north, and were threatening to overthrow the government in a rapid advance last year.

The crisis has since been complicated by splits in the main Islamist militant groups.

There is also an overlapping rebellion by Tuareg, who want either independence or autonomy.

The government is weak and unable to control the north, where tiny towns punctuate a vast desert.

Officials from the UN, EU, African Union, the World Bank and dozens of nations have met in Brussels to discuss Mali's future.

They are considering how elections can be held in July, as well as the financing of an international military force and humanitarian assistance.

Libyan rebels desperately short of funds

Even as rebel commanders predict victory is near, the rebel leadership is short of cash to fight the rebellion and run civilian affairs.
The lucrative oil industry has been shut down by the fighting.

In early April, Mazin Ramadan left his American wife and two children in Seattle and flew to this Libyan rebel stronghold to help the opposition sort out its shaky finances.

Three months later, things are looking as bleak as ever. "We're broke," said Ramadan, a Libyan American who founded a software tech company in Seattle and advises the rebel Transitional National Council on finances and oil. Even as rebel commanders predict that victory over Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is near, the rebel leadership is desperately short of cash to fight the rebellion and run civilian affairs.

The lucrative Libyan oil industry, which normally earns billions of dollars in hard currency, has been shut down by the fighting. Salaries for the rebel government's workers haven't been paid in two months. There is precious little cash to buy the imported fuel needed for the war effort and for the economy in eastern Libya, which the rebels control.

The council is beseeching Arab and Western nations to offer cash or credit. "We're getting decimated on the financial front lines," Ramadan said this week. As he spoke, the lights flickered and died in the conference room at a villa dating to the Italian colonial era that serves as a council office in downtown Benghazi. Fuel shortages have forced daily six-hour brownouts.

The council has been buying fuel in Europe on credit. But last week, a European financial company that had provided $500 million in loans told the council that it could no longer shoulder the risk and shut down the credit line. About $100 million donated by Qatar has nearly been spent, Ramadan said, and $200 million promised by Turkey has yet to arrive.

Several tankers loaded with fuel from Europe have left the Benghazi port without unloading after the council couldn't pay cash, he said. The vast petrochemical complexes at Port Brega and Ras Lanuf, seized from the rebels by government forces this spring, have been shut down. Also closed is the natural gas pipeline that normally fuels electricity production in Benghazi and other eastern cities. That means that rebel leaders in the country that is the world's 17th-largest producer of oil must import all their fuel.

Several nations have promised to provide cash, Ramadan said, but only Qatar has delivered. "We hear a lot of promises, but it's a lot easier to promise than to deliver," he said. "We don't count on it unless it's sitting in our account." Ramadan said he is pursuing new credit lines. His two cellphones rang constantly as he spoke. The council has sought loan guarantees backed by billions of dollars in frozen Libyan government assets overseas. But weeks of negotiations have failed to pry loose guarantees,

Ramadan said. In a July 7 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, four U.S. senators led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Clinton to help unlock the assets for Libyan humanitarian aid. The letter reminded Clinton of her recent promise to help put the rebel council "on firmer financial footing." Rebel finances "are in a perilous state," the letter said. The United States has authorized $25 million in nonlethal military assistance to the rebels and $53 million in humanitarian aid.

But Ramadan said loan guarantees backed by frozen Libyan assets would have a much bigger effect on the effort to topple Kadafi, a declared U.S. policy goal. The main crisis in the east is financial, not humanitarian. Thanks to unusually heavy winter rains, eastern Libya is flush with grains, fruits and vegetables.