France gets deeper in Mali war: Are they ready? (+video)
The recent rebel capture of the village of Diabaly renewed concerns that French air power in tandem with Malian ground forces would not be enough. Now French troops are headed north.
A French legionnaire cleans the barrel of an armored vehicle at an undisclosed location, north of the Malian capital, Bamako, Wednesday.
Arnaud Roine/ECPAD/AP
Bamako, Mali
French ground troops in Mali advanced north today toward the tiny hamlet of Diabaly, preparing to engage Islamic rebels in a shooting war whose duration and success are still a question mark.
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What began as a limited air campaign last week to counter an ambitious rebel advance southward from strongholds in northern Mali may this week become a full-scale war.
The French are seeking to retake Diabaly from the rebels after the town of 35,000 fell last week and airstrikes did not check rebel advances.
"We will be fighting directly," said French military chief of staff Adm. Edouard Guillaud on Europe 1 television Wednesday. “I am unable to say whether it is in one hour or in 72 hours."
The French ground assault comes six days after French forces intervened with airstrikes as it appeared Islamist rebels captured Konna, a small town in central Mali close to the strategically vital cities of Sévaré and Mopti.
Despite initial statements by the Malian military that the French strikes drove the Islamists out of Konna, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday that Konna is still not under the control of the Malian army.
France’s intervention still enjoys broad support among the majority of Malians. But the optimism that defined the early days of the operation has now taken on a more cautious tone.
Both Malians and foreign analysts are grappling with the scale of operations thought necessary to retake northern Mali from the rebels – with many commentators questioning how France could have underestimated the strength of its adversary.
“From my experience, the French have always underestimated the threat [in Mali],” says Rudy Atallah, who served as Africa Counterterrorism director in the office of the US Secretary of Defense.
Mr. Atallah, who has extensive experience in the region, questioned optimistic military assessments predicated on the belief that the battlefield is the “flat and open” Sahara.
“We’re talking about a large geographic space and it is sad to see that some people think that there are no places for these guys to hide,” he says. “It’s not a force on force fight,” he says. “This is an insurgency war. It doesn’t take a lot of Islamists to create a lot of damage. They [the Islamists] are prepared for this."
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