Mali militants hit back, vow to take war to 'heart of France'

BAMAKO/PARIS: Al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali launched a counter-offensive on Monday after four days of air strikes by French warplanes on their strongholds in the desert north, promising to drag France into a long and brutal Afghanistan-style ground war.
They also threatened to take the war on French soil.
“France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France,” said a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), an offshoot of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Asked where they would strike, Abou Dardar told AFP by telephone: “Everywhere. In Bamako, in Africa and in Europe.”
Authorities in France were already on high alert over fears of a backlash on home soil by the extremists.
The MUJAO official also referred to France’s eight hostages held in the Sahel region.
“We will make a statement on the hostages today. From today all the mujahedeen are together.”
On Sunday, French Rafale fighter planes struck bases used by Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Gao, the main city in northern Mali, and Kidal.
Sixty militants were killed in Gao alone on Sunday, according to residents and a regional security force.
French warplanes also attacked rebel stockpiles of munitions and fuel further north at Afhabo, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Kidal, a regional security source said. The area is a stronghold of Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith).
And they hit a base further east at Lere, near the border with Mauritania, according to witnesses and a statement from Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Algeria on Sunday granted France permission to fly through its airspace to reach its targets. Previously, Algiers was hostile to any foreign intervention in Mali.
France launched the operation alongside the Malian army on Friday to counter a push south by the insurgents who had threatened to advance on the capital Bamako.
Gao residents said earlier that the French airstrikes had levelled the Islamists’ position and forced them to flee.
“We can see smoke billowing from the base. There isn’t a single Islamist left in town. They have all fled,” a teacher said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The French offensive has blocked the advance of Islamist forces toward the capital Bamako from their bases in the north which they have controlled since last April.
Paris is determined to end Islamist domination of northern Mali, which many fear could act as a launchpad for attacks on the West and a base for coordination with Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.
Town seized
Launching a counter-attack far to the southwest of recent fighting, the militants clashed with government forces on Monday inside the town of Diabaly, just 350 km (220 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako.
Residents said the rebels had entered the town from the north overnight, approaching from the porous border region with Mauritania where AQIM has camps.
“They have taken Diabaly ... after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian army,” French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM television, adding that French and Malian forces were fighting to dislodge the rebels.
Residents said the militants, shouting ‘Allahu akbar’, were battling the army inside the town.
France has said its sudden intervention on Friday, after Mali’s president appealed for urgent aid in the face of a rebel advance, stopped the Islamists from seizing the capital Bamako. It has pledged to press on with air strikes in the coming days.
President Francois Hollande says France’s aim is simply to support a mission by the 15-nation West African bloc ECOWAS to retake the north, as mandated by a UN Security Council resolution in December.
Under pressure from Paris, several regional states have said they hope to have soldiers on the ground this week. Military chiefs from ECOWAS nations will meet in Bamako on Tuesday but regional powerhouse Nigeria, which is due to lead the mission, has cautioned that training and deploying troops will take time.
Doubts over ECOWAS deployment
More than two decades of peaceful elections had earned Mali a reputation as a bulwark of democracy, but that image unraveled in a matter of weeks after a military coup in March which left a power vacuum for the Islamist rebellion.
France, which has repeatedly said it has abandoned its role as the policeman of its former African colonies, convened a UN Security Council meeting for Monday to discuss Mali.
Hollande’s intervention has won plaudits from Western leaders but raises the threat level for eight French hostages held by Al-Qaeda allies in the Sahara and for the 30,000 French expatriates living in neighboring, mostly Muslim states.
Concerned about reprisals at home, France has tightened security at public buildings and on public transport.
In its first casualty of the campaign, Paris said a French pilot was killed on Friday when rebels shot at his helicopter.
Hours earlier, a French intelligence officer held hostage in Somalia by Al-Shabab militants linked to Al-Qaeda was killed in a failed commando raid to free him.
Military analysts warn that if French action was not followed up by a robust deployment of ECOWAS forces, with logistical and financial support from NATO, then the whole UN-mandated Mali mission was unlikely to succeed.
“The French action was an ad-hoc measure. It’s going to be a mess for a while, it depends on how quickly everyone can come on board,” said Hussein Solomon, a professor in the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State, South Africa.
He voiced grave doubts about the prospects of a properly equipped and trained ECOWAS force deploying effectively in a ground operation to follow up French air strikes.
“This is just playing for time ... It’s imperative that other NATO countries get involved,” he said. “Everybody talks about the threat of global terrorism, but then where is the global response?“
Officials in Washington has said the United States would share intelligence with France and was considering sending a small number of unarmed surveillance drones. Britain and Canada have also promised logistical support.