French Planes Bomb Rebel Positions in Mali

PARIS — France attacked Islamists targets in Mali for the third straight day on Sunday, bombing an key northern town held by the extremists.

French fighter jets bombed the northern Malian town of Gao, even as West African troops were due to arrive to help Bamako beat back an Islamist insurgency.

In a television interview, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the air raids would continue Monday.

Le Drian said roughly 400 French soldiers have been deployed to Bamako, to ensure security and protect French and European nationals.  More French troops were dispatched to the town of Mopti, about 500 kilometers north of the capital.

Launched Friday, the attacks aim to eradicate an Islamist insurgency that was making inroads to the south last week, after capturing vast chunks of territory in northern Mali.  France says the Islamists not only threaten Mali and surrounding countries, but also Europe.

Paris has also notched up its terrorism alert, underscoring concerns extremists may launch retaliatory attacks in the city and against more than half a dozen French hostages held by Islamists in West Africa.

News reports describe Bamako as calm, with some cars sporting French flags.  The offensive has earned praise in Europe and West Africa.

Residents in Gao say the Islamists who occupied their town and imposed Islamic Sharia law have fled.  Interviewed on French radio, the town's mayor, Diallo Sadou, hailed the French attacks.

Sadou thanked France for its courage to have launched the offensive, and said he hoped God was protecting the French hostages.

One French soldier has died since the French airstrikes began Friday.  The Malian government says at least 11 of its soldiers have been killed and another 60 injured.   

from VOA News
by Lisa Bryant
January 13, 2013

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French police find explosives in Islamist probe

French GIPN (Photo credit: biloud43)

(Reuters) - French anti-terrorist police have found bomb-making materials and weapons while investigating suspected radical Islamists across the country, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said on Wednesday.

Molins said a dozen suspects rounded up in raids over the weekend would be held for a further 24 hours after the discovery of chemicals used to make explosives at a garage in the Paris suburbs belonging to one of them.

"We are clearly confronted with an extremely dangerous terror network," Molins said in a statement to the media. "It is essential to extend their stay in custody."

Investigators searched garages in the town of Torcy, near Paris, overnight after an anti-terrorist raid on Saturday ended with police shooting dead an Islamist suspect linked to a grenade attack last month on a Jewish supermarket and arresting 11 others.

Molins said a shotgun, a revolver, bags of potassium nitrate, sulfur and a pressure cooker were discovered at a garage used by the suspect, at whose home police on Saturday had found a list of Jewish groups in the Paris area.

"These are all products used to make what we call improvised explosives," he said.

France's Jewish community has been on edge after a series of attacks in recent months. In the worst incident, three Jewish children and a rabbi were among seven shot dead in the southern city of Toulouse in March by an al-Qaeda-inspired gunman.

Last week, the government said the terrorist threat remained high as it presented legislation allowing police to arrest those believed to have been involved in terrorism-related activity outside French borders.

Molins said the detention of the dozen suspects could be extended again by a further six days if necessary.

from REUTERS
PARIS | Wed Oct 10, 2012 3:48am EDT
(Reporting by Catherine Bremer; editing by Mark John)

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