Headlines

Guardian

British troops ready to join the Mali mission

Britain is prepared to take the risk of sending a “sizeable amount” of troops, to Mali and neighbouring West African countries as David Cameron offers strong support to France in its operation to drive Islamist militants from its former colony.

As news emerged that insurgents retreating from Timbuktu had set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, Downing Street said the prime minister told François Hollande on Sunday night Britain was “keen” to provide further military assistance to France.

Cameron despatched Sir Kim Darroch, his national security adviser, to Paris on Monday to discuss what help Britain could provide. Government sources said decisions on troop deployments were expected to be made in the coming days as France confirms its exact requirements. One source said that Britain could easily dispatch 200 troops if France requested such a number.

Read the Article

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Trackbacks/Pings

Trackback URL

Comments

Weren’t we the dregs of the world a few years back for doing this type of stuff? America bad, Europe good or something like that?

gator70 on January 29, 2013 at 9:42 AM

And Chimpy McBushitler is also putting a US base in Mali to conduct drone strikes and air raid villages and kill women and children.

Oh wait.

HumpBot Salvation on January 29, 2013 at 9:48 AM

Weren’t we the dregs of the world a few years back for doing this type of stuff? America bad, Europe good or something like that?

gator70 on January 29, 2013 at 9:42 AM

Haha. Didn’t European empires ‘rule the world’ a few centuries back? Now it’s going to take the whole western piece of the continent to roust some ‘terrorists’ in Mali.

levi on January 29, 2013 at 10:37 AM

One source said that Britain could easily dispatch 200 troops if France requested such a number.

200? That’s a bit extreme. 20 will do.

CorporatePiggy on January 29, 2013 at 11:12 AM

Apparently the British are not the only ones. There is a report that Canadian Special Forces are there.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/canadian-special-forces-ground-mali-sources-002257507.html

Blaise on January 29, 2013 at 12:22 PM