A still image from video released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office, Saturday, shows a French Mirage 3000 aircraft being refueled in-flight. French forces carried out a second day of air strikes against rebels in Mali, Saturday. — Reuters BAMAKO/PARIS — French aircraft pounded Islamist fighters in Mali for a second day on Saturday and neighboring states accelerated plans to send in troops in an international campaign to crush the rebels. A French pilot died on Friday when his helicopter was shot down near the central Mali town of Mopti. Hours later, a French hostage being held by Islamists in Somalia was killed during a bungled rescue attempt unrelated to events in Mali but which highlighted France's conflict with such groups in Africa. The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has for months lobbied world powers to back its plan to end the nine-month occupation of Mali's north by al Qaeda-linked groups, which have imposed an extreme version of Sharia law on the moderate Islamic nation. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, the current chairman of ECOWAS, signed an order on Friday to deploy some 3,300 regional troops under a UN mandated operation. “By Monday by the latest, the troops will be there or will have started to arrive,” said Ali Coulibaly, Ivory Coast's African Integration Minister. “Things are accelerating ... The reconquest of the north has already begun.” The bulk of the forces are expected to come from Nigeria, Niger, Senegal and Togo, led by Nigerian Major-General Shehu Abdulkadir. Burkina Faso, which has tried to mediate talks with some of the Islamist groups, said on Saturday it would rapidly deploy 500 soldiers to Mali to support the mission. The African-led mission had not been expected to start until September due to difficulties of funding and training troops. However, Western governments, particularly former colonial power France, voiced alarm after the rebel alliance captured the town of Konna on Thursday in their first major drive towards the capital Bamako since seizing control of the north in April. With heavily armed Islamist fighters bearing down on Sevare - home to a military base and a strategic gateway on the route to Bamako 500 km to the south - Mali's government appealed for urgent military aid from France. France responded on Friday with air strikes which turned back the rebel convoy and allowed Malian soldiers to push the Islamists out of Konna, removing the threat they could conquer the whole of the country. Army chief Edouard Guillaud said France had no plan to chase the Islamists in the north with land troops. Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France had sent special forces to Mopti before the strikes and hundreds of troops to Bamako. The Elysee palace said Hollande had briefed African counterparts by telephone on Saturday about the mission - named “Operation Serval” after an African wildcat. A spokesman for one of Mali's rebel groups, Ansar Dine, warned that France's intervention would have repercussions. “There are consequences, not only for French hostages, but also for all French citizens wherever they find themselves in the Muslim world,” Sanda Ould Boumama said. — Reuters
