French troops advance on Islamist rebels in northern Mali

The Washington Post - 16 January 2013 

View Photo Gallery — Islamist extremists grab more territory in Mali: French military forces step up their campaign, launching airstrikes for the first time in the central part of the country.

By Edward Cody, Updated: Wednesday, January 16, 11:29 AM

PARIS — French troops in armored vehicles and machine gun-mounted pickups moved northward Wednesday to bolster Malian army units fighting Islamist guerrillas entrenched in the beleaguered town of Diably.

The troop movements, recorded by journalists on the scene, set the stage for what seemed likely to be French troops’ first major engagement on the ground since President Francois Hollande ordered a major military intervention in Mali six days ago. Some reports said French special forces advisers were already in the city battling alongside the Malian soldiers.

An all-out attack on the city by French ground forces would sharply raise the risk of casualties, likely taking a political toll on Hollande. So far the Mali operation has drawn praise from French leaders across the political spectrum, but a large number of soldier fatalities could change the equation quickly.

A battle with the apparently determined Islamist militiamen in Diably would probably have to proceed at close quarters, house-to-house. Close-in fighting would rob the French forces of the overwhelming technological advantage they have had while their role was limited to air strikes and attempts to buck up the disorganized Malian army.

It would also be a dramatic change from the 2011 Libya intervention, in which no French casualties were reported despite months of bombing and the presence on the ground of an unknown number of special forces.

In what could be a taste of things to come, former President Valery Giscard Estaing warned Hollande against letting the French intervention evolve into a “neo-colonialist” type of action.
”France should limit itself strictly to its logistical support to African forces,” he told the newspaper Le Monde.

Meanwhile, the Islamist guerrillas who have turned Mali’s vast northern stretches into a haven for extremist groups on Wednesday attacked a European target outside the battlefield, in eastern Algeria, the homeland of most of their leaders and where their movement originated.

Armed assailants burst into a gas production facility at In Amenas, about 800 miles southeast of Algiers, the capital, according to British Petroleum and the British Foreign Ministry. The assailants killed or took hostage a number of foreign workers and security guards, according to news reports.
The remote facility, on the border with Libya, is jointly operated by British Petroleum, Norway’s Statoil and Sonatrach, the Algerian state oil company.

British Petroleum said a group of “unidentified armed people” attacked and occupied the facility at 5 a.m. and, as of late afternoon, were still occupying the site. The company said it had not confirmed the “identity or intention of the people occupying the site.”

“We do not yet have confirmed information on the status of the personnel at the site but believe some are being held by the occupiers,” the company said in a statement issued in London.

Reports quoting Algerian security sources in the region varied considerably; some said a British security guard was killed and that several Japanese and other Europeans were taken hostage. The Irish deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, demanded the release of an Irish hostage, suggesting he was among those being held.

“We do not yet have confirmed information on the status of the personnel at the site but believe some are being held by the occupiers,” the company said in a statement issued in London.

Reports quoting Algerian security sources in the region varied considerably; some said a British security guard was killed and that several Japanese and other Europeans were taken hostage. The Irish deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, demanded the release of an Irish hostage, suggesting he was among those being held.

A branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group that was born in Alegria and has turned Mali’s vast northern stretches into a haven for guerillas and terror organizations, claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement given to the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, the group said the attackers were holding 41 hostages, including seven Americans. But this claim was not confirmed from other sources.

Since the French military intervention in Mali began Friday, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other Islamist militias have issued a number of threats, saying Hollande would be made to pay for his actions.

The fighting at Diably, about 250 miles northeast of Bamako, the Malian capital, raged despite several days of bombing by French Mirage 2000D and Rafale warplanes and repeated vows by Malian army officers to retake the city. Reports quoting residents who fled south said the Islamist fighters took up positions in houses and other buildings to escape the bombing.

The French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said the Islamist guerrillas were part of the main faction of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, commanded by a veteran Algerian underground fighter, Abdulhamid Abu Zeid. They constituted the western column of a two-pronged southward offensive launched a week ago in what French officials said was an attempt to take Bamako and turn Mali into a terrorist-ruled country.

Around Diably, Le Drian said, “we have the hardest groups, the most fanatic, the best organized, the most determined and the best armed.” At a news conference Tuesday evening, he added, “We have on our hands in this zone several hundred, more than a thousand, 1,200, 1,300 terrorists, with perhaps reinforcements tomorrow.”

The French intervention, which is scheduled to include 2,500 troops when it reaches full force, has been limited so far to airstrikes and the deployment of French special forces advisers to help bolster the badly disorganized Malian army. The fighting has caused one French casualty, a helicopter gunship pilot who was killed by a small-arms round that hit him in the neck.

Anthony Faiola in London contributed to this report.