French planes bombard Mali camps

GOSSI, Mali - French troops launched airstrikes on Islamic militant training camps and arms depots around Kidaland Tessalit in Mali’s far north, defense officials said Sunday, as the first supply convoy of food, fuel and parts to eastern Mali headed across the country.

French planes pounded extremist training camps as well as arms and fuel depots from Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday, according to French army Col. ThierryBurkhard.

“It was an important aerial operation to the north of the town Kidal and in the Tessalit region where we targeted lo-gistical depots and Islamist training camps ... some 20 sites,” said Burkhard. He said there were 30 planes used in the operation, including Mirage and Rafale jets.

The French intervened in Mali on Jan. 11 to stem the advance of the al-Qaida-linked fighters. Though they succeeded in ousting the rebels from the three main northern cities they occupied, including the fabled city of Timbuktu, the French still see militants in the extreme northern area near the border with Algeria a threat.

“Here, there’s still various Islamist groups like the MUJAO, and Ansar Dine,” he said. The Islamic extremist group the Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad is known as MUJAO.

As the French bombarded in the north, they also neared the eastern town of Gao with its first supply convoy since the conflict began.

Many along the road heading northeast from Sevare toward Gao on Sunday screamed “Vive la France!” and old men in long flowing robes on bicycles waved as the 62-vehicle convoy spanning 3 miles lumbered by.

The convoy was near Gossi, about 124 miles southwest of its final destination of Gao, on Sunday. It proceeded slowly because of concerns about land mines between Gossi and Gao. Four Malian soldiers died last week when one exploded, and two others have been found in the vicinity since, said Lt. Emmanuel, who gave only his first name in keeping with French military protocol.

The convoy carrying food, fuel and spare parts for the French military 808 miles over ground from Bamako to Gao illustrates the logistical difficulties facing the mission in Mali.

“The distances are very long. In Afghanistan we could do it in a day. Now, it’s eight days round trip here,” said Lt. Emmanuel. The convoy is bringing a 15-day supply, he said.

Still, the successes of the operation were seen alongsidethe small villages where signs of life were returning to normal, and where there was no visible presence of the Islamic rebels who imposed harsh rule for months.

The convoy set out just hours after French President Francois Hollande left Mali soil. Hollande, accompanied by Mali’s interim president, Dioncounda Traore, spoke to French troops and also visited Timbuktu, where fleeing Islamic militants burned historic manuscripts before the ancient city was recaptured Jan. 28.

Thousands of people stood elbow-to-elbow behind a perimeter line in downtown Timbuktu, hoisting the homemade French flags they had prepared for Hollande’s arrival to the northern desert city that French troops liberated last week after 10 months of control by al-Qaida-linked groups.

He then flew to Bamako, the capital, where he spoke before boarding a plane back to Paris. He stressed the successes of the French intervention, but warned that threats of extremism will continue.

“Terrorism has been rejected. It has been chased, but not yet beaten,” Hollande said.

France has said that it eventually wants to hand over responsibility for the mission to the Malian army and other African counterparts. But, once the country’s thousands of troops, fighter planes and helicopters leave, Mali’s weak army and soldiers from neighboring countries might be hard-pressed to retain control of northern Mali’s cities if the Islamic extremists attempt a comeback from their desert hide-outs.

In an interview with the Sunday’s French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Tieman Coulibaly expressed the government’s hope that the French military operation carry on until the Islamists have no more weapons left.

“Faced with seasoned fighters whose arsenal must be destroyed, we wish the mission to continue,” Coulibaly said. “Especially given how important the aerial dimension is.”

Separatist Touareg rebels and Islamic militants overran northern Mali after a March military coup in Bamako, which was prompted by soldiers whosaid they weren’t equipped to fight the growing insurgency.

The Islamists gained dominance after clashing with the Touareg group and began implementing a strict version of Shariah law. European and U.S. officials expressed concern the region may become a haven and training ground for militant groups intent on attacking Western targets.

The French president pledged to support Mali’s economy and help with the reconstruction of public services, education, health, security and cultural heritage.

Hollande also urged citizens of the former French colony to carry out exemplary elections in July and refrain from extrajudicial recrimination against local people who had cooperated with terrorist groups. In a speech, Traore urged the population not to resort to “vengeance, hate and settlingof accounts.”

France “doesn’t want to meddle in the political affairs of Mali,” Hollande said. The landlocked nation’s territorial integrity would be placed under the “legitimate authority” of Traore until elections can be held, he said.

Just before the French campaign, Malian troops killed civilians suspected of siding with Islamic militants, while the insurgents executed captured soldiers and used children as fighters, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said Friday in separate statements.

Traore has said he would negotiate with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the main Touareg rebel group, provided it drops claims for a separate homeland.He rejected talks with Islamic groups such as Ansar ud-Din and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Information for this article was contributed by Krista Larson and Thomas Adamson of The Associated Press and by Mark Deen and Tara Patel of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/04/2013

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