France continues Mali air strikes and sends troops to Bamako

French forces continued air strikes against Islamist rebels in Mali on Saturday and sent troops to protect the capital Bamako under an intervention involving several hundred soldiers, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.   

Le Drian said French army units had attacked a column of rebels heading towards the town of Mopti and said a French pilot was killed during air strikes on Friday in an operation to help the Malian government quash a push south by the rebels.

This as, an Ivory Coast government official said that West African regional bloc ECOWAS will begin sending soldiers to Mali by Monday as part of a mission to drive al Qaeda-linked fighters from the country's north.   

For its part, Niger will send 500 soldiers to join an international military campaign in Mali led by West African regional bloc ECOWAS to quash advances by Islamist rebels, Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum told Reuters on Saturday.

"Monday by the latest the troops will be there or will have started to arrive ... We need to retake the northern part (of Mali) occupied by the jihadists," said Ali Coulibaly, Ivory Coast's African Integration Minister.   

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara currently holds  the rotating chairmanship of ECOWAS.

Earlier on Friday, France launched airstrikes to help the government of Mali defeat al-Qaeda-linked militants who captured more ground this week, dramatically raising the stakes in the battle for this vast desert nation.     

French President Francois Hollande said the "terrorist groups, drug traffickers and extremists" in northern Mali "show a brutality that threatens us all." He vowed that the operation would last "as long as necessary."     

France said it was taking the action in Mali at the request of President Dioncounda Traore, who declared a state of emergency because of the militants' advance.     

The arrival of the French troops in their former colony came a day after the Islamists moved the closest yet toward territory still under government control and fought the Malian military for the first time in months, seizing the strategic city of Konna.           

For the past nine months, the Islamic militants have controlled a large swath of northern Mali, a lawless desert region where kidnapping has flourished.      

France is operating helicopter gunships in Mali, two diplomats told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation publicly. French special forces, who have been operating in the region recently, are also believed to be taking part in the military operation, one diplomat said.     

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the AP that Senegal and Nigeria also responded to an appeal from Mali's president for help to counter the militants.     

Residents in central Mali said they had seen Western military personnel arriving in the area, with planes landing at a nearby airport throughout the night.      

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was "deeply concerned" by events in Mali, and that Washington was closely consulting with Paris. She said neither France nor Mali has asked for U.S. military assistance.     

France has led a diplomatic push for international action in northern Mali but efforts to get an African-led force together, or to train the weak Malian army, have dragged.     

The French quickly mobilized after the Islamists seized the city of Konna on Thursday, pushing closer to the army's major base in central Mali.  Late Friday, Malian Lt. Col. Diarran Kone said the government had not been able to recapture the town.     

The United Nations Security Council has condemned the capture of Konna and urged U.N. member states to assist Mali "in order to reduce the threat posed by terrorist organizations and associated groups."     




AP/REUTERS