The U.S. has been stressing the
avoidance of “mission creep” in
Mali even as American support
increases for the French-led
effort to oust Al Qaeda
affiliates from the vast West African desert state. Through last week, Air Force
C17 Globemasters had flown
47 missions to Mali, ferrying
975 French troops and more
than 1,200 tons of equipment
and supplies to the fight against Al Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb rebels for
control of northern Mali,
according to Defense
Department figures. The Air Force had also flown
83 refueling missions
delivering more than 544,000
gallons of gas to French
Rafale and Mirage attack
aircraft in close air support of French and Chad troops. In March, President Obama
authorized $50 million in
“immediate military assistance
to Chad and France in their
efforts to secure Mali from
terrorists and violent extremists.” The State
Department has also committed
$6.6 million to support free
elections in Mali. The White House also
disclosed plans to set up a base
in neighboring Niger to operate
drone flights over Mali for
the French, and also monitor
the cross-border movement of fighters from the Boko Haram
extremist group in Nigeria in
support of AQIM. For now,
the Predator and Reaper drones
will be unarmed and used only
for intelligence and reconnaissance, Defense
Department officials said. In addition, the U.S. Africa
Command has spent $550
million over the past four
years to train and equip West
African security forces in
stabilizing the shaky regimes of the region and in combating
terrorism. Last week, Army Gen. Carter
Ham, the head of U.S. Africa
Command, summed up the U.S.
efforts in testimony before
the House Armed Services
Committee, stressing that U.S. forces were strictly limited to
a support role and would not
engage in combat. “We are supporting French
efforts with information,
airlift, and refueling, and are
working with the Department
of State to support the
deployment of West African forces to the African-led
International Support Mission
to Mali,” Ham said. “Recently, we began unarmed,
remotely piloted aircraft
operations from Niger in
support of intelligence
gathering efforts in the
region,” Ham said. Ham said the inroads made by
AQIM were “worrisome to me,”
but "I think we have an
opportunity now to work a
preventive effort in concert
with African forces and with allies and friends globally to
suppress the threat, to reverse
the trend.” "And that does not necessitate a
large commitment of U.S.
forces,” said Ham, who will
retire shortly and be replaced
at U.S. Africa Command by
Army Gen. David Rodriguez. “And I do not believe that a
large commitment of U.S.
forces is necessary or
appropriate under the current
circumstances.” In dealing with the continent
as a whole, the focus of U.S.
Africa Command was on “low-
cost, small footprint,
innovative approaches that
characterize our relationships with partners in a number of
areas of the world, to include
Africa,” a senior DOD
official said at a Pentagon
briefing last week. To accomplish the mission,
Africom headquarters will
remain in Stuttgart, Germany,
rather than moving to the
continent or operating out of a
base in the U.S., said the senior official who spoke on grounds
of anomymity. The senior official declined
to predict how long the U.S.
will maintain the drone base in
Niger but suggested it could
be long-term. The goal of the
U.S. was to maintain “situational awareness,” the
official said, and as long as
Al Qaeda-influenced groups
remained a threat, then “we are
very interested, you know, in
looking at the key nodes or hubs, if you will, and then the
connections among them.” As for the French effort in
Mali, President Francois
Hollande has announced his
intentions to begin
withdrawing next month some
of the 4,000 troops who were sent there in January to drive
the rebels from northern towns
and protect the more than 5,000
French nationals in Bamako,
the capital. In pursuing the Al Qaeda
groups to the northern
mountains, the French have
encountered the suicide attacks
and improvised explosive
devices that the U.S. faced in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last week, a 24-year-old
corporal became the fifth
French soldier to be killed in
Mali when his patrol vehicle
hit an IED in the north. Three
other French troops were wounded. On Monday, German Defense
Minister Thomas de Maiziere
arrived in Mali to discuss a
training mission for German
troops with Malian forces. Several other European Union
nations have also pledged to
send trainers to assist in setting
up a United Nations
peacekeeping force ahead of
elections tentatively scheduled for July.

When are they coming to Northern Nigeria?

northern nigeria is not flameing like northern mali. Trust me JTF CAN HANDLE NORTHERN NIGERIA