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FRENCH TROOPS KILLED 19 Islamist militants during an army operation in the desert in northern Mali today according to a French military source.
The violence comes with Malians due to vote on Sunday in a second round of parliamentary polls supposed to mark the west African nation’s first steps to recovery after it was plunged into chaos by a military coup in March last year.
“A French military operation is underway north of Timbuktu. French troops are facing a pretty determined group. At the moment, 19 members of this group have been killed,” the Bamako-based source said.
“The French troops haven’t reported any deaths or injuries. We are in control of the situation,” the source said, without specifying which Islamist group the militants were part of.
The military coup in Bamako opened the way for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and other Islamist groups to seize the vast north of the country, where they ran cities under their brutal version of sharia law for nine months.
Former colonial power France intervened in January to drive out the radicals.
After several months of calm, with French and African troops overseeing security, jihadist groups launched fresh attacks in September, leaving a dozen civilians, Malians and African troops dead.
Malians check voter listings as polling stations. Pic: Jerome Delay
Operation Hydra
French, UN and Malian forces launched Operation Hydra in late October after being taken aback by the renewed violence, after two Chadian UN peacekeepers and a civilian were killed in the northern town of Tessalit.
The goal of Hydra was “to put pressure on any terrorist movements to avoid their resurgence”, the French military said, indicating that about 1,500 troops were involved, including some 600 French, 600 Malians and 300 UN soldiers.
Mali is also battling the latest separatist rebellion launched by the Tuareg, traditionally a federation of nomad tribes that rebelled in Mali and Niger in the 1960s and the 1990s, and are seeking some kind of self-determination for the country’s north, a swathe of desert the size of Texas they call Azawad.
The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) ambushed soldiers as they were on patrol at a market near the border with Niger on 8 November.
The clash followed three attacks by the MNLA on soldiers in the rebel stronghold of Kidal in September, after the militants pulled out of peace talks with the government, dealing a blow to hopes of a durable peace in the troubled nation.
The collapse of the talks led to an upsurge in violence which saw two French journalists shot dead on November 2 during a kidnapping in Kidal by AQIM.
The chief suspect in the kidnapping is a Tuareg thought to have associated with both AQIM and the mainly secular MNLA.
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Islam is a dangerous threat to peace in many parts of the Africa.
As it is,in many cities in Europe.
France is a threat to peace in many parts of Africa. 46 military interventions in its former African colonies from 1960-2005 and counting http://research.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/7/8/6/2/p178629_index.html with at least 3 already this year, including one with our enthusiastic support. This is plain old imperialism, pure and simple.
@fleeting Give me Western imperialism over Islamic imperialism any day.
When was the last time an Islamic state intervened militarily in Ireland or France?
There is no Islamic state militarily capable of intervening in France.That’s more down to the fact that Islamic states tend to be scientific and technological backwaters rather than them having a pacifist nature.
It makes it nonsensical to talk about Islamic imperialism then though doesn’t it? This article explains what the Mali intervention is really about http://www.irishleftreview.org/2013/03/12/irish-troops-mali/
Not really.Jihadists are agitating for the imposition for Sharia law,from Chechnya all the way down to Nigeria,from Algeria all the way over to Indonesia funded by petro dollars whether the respective inhabitants of those countries wish it or not.Sounds imperialistic enough to me.
Irishleftreview is a bastion of Western self-loathing ,and sympathises and supports Islamic terrorism.Hardly the most unbiased of sources.
Yeah right. I bet you think Breivik was on to something too.
Fleetingwhim radical Islam is the single biggest threat to western civilisation and it is spreading like a plague, open your eyes before it’s too late!
Did Enda ask an Islamic state intervened militarily in Ireland like the Malian and the UN did?
To paraphrase Gandhi when asked what he thought about western civilisation, ‘it would be a good idea’, but seeing a it doesn’t exist I’m not bothered about equally imaginary threats to it.
Ask the families of all those so far killed by islamofascists whether they think its an imaginary threat or not.
I think most of them would say terrorists killed their families, rather than Islamic imperialism attacked western civilisation.
Don’t think the French intend to stay.
So somebody who differs from your opinion regarding Islam and the West is a Breivik sympathiser?That’s some sound logic and reasoning you got going on.
What inspired those terrorists to carry out those killings?
Yes Whim, radical islamic terrorists.
When some starts throwing around phrases like ‘Islamic imperialism’, describing ‘Islam’ as a ‘threat’ to ‘Western cities’ and ‘Western civilisation’ and coming out with overblown alarmist stuff like ‘Jihadists are agitating for the imposition for Sharia law,from Chechnya all the way down to Nigeria,from Algeria all the way over to Indonesia’, then they are using similar Islamophobic language to Breivik and drawing from the same pool of far right of ideas. That’s why I made the comparison, not because you have ‘different’ views but because you are clearly bigoted against Muslims.
Radical Islamic terrorists do not = Islam. Radical Islamic terrorism does not = imperialism. Victims of radical Islamic terrorists do not = Western civilisation. I can’t spell it out any simpler than this.
Radical Islam would like to see western values replaced by sharia law – I can’t spell it out much simpler than this either.
Maybe you can highlight some examples of my ‘bigotry’ against Muslims?I read over my posts and I can’t find any.I merely highlighted the existence of Jihadis across North Africa,the Middle East and Asia agitating for Sharia law.A fact which in you seem to deny.
Stating this fact does not make one akin to Breivik,Islamohobic(a nonsensical term),or of the ‘far right .
Vive la France!
Gwan France!
Not mad about th French but good job done here, well done
Terrorists do not like facing a real army.
Yeah true but the same goes to the young men and women in these “real” armies don’t want to be going home in body bags and boxes from foreign soils.
Religion of peace…..
18 for zero. Good shooting.
well done to those french troops keep up the good work!
Great : let’s build a Super Mosque in Dublin .
The french are trying to write some of their many wrongs in Africa. Their intervention is needed in Mali and CAR. As it was needed in Ivory Coast. Extreme Islam represents a tiny majority of muslim Africans.
minority?
Of course it’s a minority. Study Islam for a few hours, much of it makes plenty of since. Crazies using Islam as an excuse to butcher people makes as much since as right wing Christian crazies. Luckily right wing Christian crazies don’t go around shooting and bombing innocents the world over!
erm…Born again Christian George W. Bush, Catholic convert Tony Blair, self-described Christian Anders Breivik…
Do you believe the Gulf war was carried out in the name of Christianity?If it was ,why was the Pope and the Catholic church in opposition to it?
Bush has claimed that ‘God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq’, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa Mainstream Muslim religious leaders condemned 9/11, 7/7, the Madrid bombings etc. What’s your point?
Smoke those suckers yeah!
Good on ya France!
Its all self defence when ya at war
there was a slightly different reaction when Para’s killed 14 IRA terrorists on Bloody Sunday .
The French have no right to be in Mali – - except they want its minerals etc -
Why, is there a Fanta shortage in France?
Brilliant Barry pmsl
Jim, Well, it’s not just minerals their after, they also want soft drinks, fizzy drinks and sodas.
Jim don’t insult the 14 people killed by the paras on bloody Sunday by comparing them to the Islamist terrorist in Mali, the Islamist in Mali are against the very thing that the marchers on bloody Sunday were protesting for equal rights for everyone
don’t insult the 14 people killed by the paras on bloody Sunday by comparing them to the Islamist terrorist in Mali,”
the French are colonialists – just like the British – they are in Africa to exploit – .read the French connection .
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201387113131914906.html
. If u think the French are interested in Human Rights for Africans – u are badly mistaken -
— and people should not hide their Islam phobia in silly remarks – as above .
If u hate / are scared of Muslims – say so .
I hate radical Islamist, sharia law enforcers etc, I don’t hate ordinary Muslims
Come on Jim aljazeera? that’s the Islamic version of fox news lol
It’s funny to read all these comments!! Irish forgot the past when they were Buchered by Brit’s like dogs. Not very long ago. Now say, Gawan Brit’s
Says you’re man from Pakistan a country that violates the rights of the religious minorities and women
Says you are man from Ireland who’s wife/gf cheat on him nearly every day. I think that is not a debate right now. giving moral support to big countries who invade small or poor country is not the Irish way. Which itself suffers a lot under British times. Brit’s use to made jokes about Irish. I hope Irish never forget where they come from.
I’m single at the moment I’m looking for a nice Hindu woman, any left Pakistan or have they all been wiped out?
You single what apity. It’s not your fault Irish woman don’t like Irish men any more. Cos of some well known reasons lol. Question Having Pakistani woman it’s out proportions
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