Mali

The Pentagon has deployed a small number of troops to Mali to support allied forces fighting there, despite repeated pledges by the Obama administration not to put "boots on the ground" in the war-torn African country. About 10 U.S. military personnel are in Mali to provide "liaison support" to French and African troops but are not engaged in combat operations, said Lt. Col. Robert Firman, a Pentagon spokesman. Twelve others are assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, the capital, he added.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — The foreign affairs minister of Burkina Faso says talks will soon resume with a Tuareg rebel group whose influence has been growing in northern Mali. Djibril Bassole made the announcement Monday, days after the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad said it would meet with the Malian government. Jihadists have been forced out of other major towns in northern Mali by the French-led military operation, but the military has not yet been able to...

THE REPORTS OUT of northern Mali are more appalling by the day. A vast, arid swath of Africa has fallen under the control of radical Islamists who are imposing a strict form of sharia and building a new stronghold for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. As punishment for robbery, the Islamists have hacked off people's hands and feet. A man told the Economist that the top of his ear was sliced off for smoking. "For drinking, they cut off your head," he said. The radical Islamists have also destroyed ancient landmarks in the north and become entrenched in an area...

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — The man who acted as the spokesman for one of the three al-Qaida-linked groups occupying northern Mali turned himself in over the weekend to Mauritanian authorities on the border, an intelligence official briefed on the matter confirmed on Monday. Sanda Ould Boumana, the Timbuktu-based spokesman for Ansar Dine, is being transferred to Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott. The official, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said that Ould Boumana had...

BAMAKO, Mali — Mali's Tuareg rebels, who have seized control of the country's north in the aftermath of a military coup in the capital, declared the independence Friday of what they called their Azawad nation. "We, the people of the Azawad," they said on the rebel Web site, "proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day, Friday, April 6, 2012. " The military chiefs of 13 of Mali's neighbors met Thursday in Ivory Coast to hash out plans for a military intervention to push back the rebels...

THE TAKING of American hostages by Islamic militants who attacked a gas field in Algeria on Wednesday served to underline the reality that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the jihadist factions affiliated with it pose a direct threat to the United States. The group is active not just in Algeria and neighboring Libya — where it is believed to have played a role in the fatal attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in September — but also in Mali, where militants have taken over territory the size of Texas and...

NAIROBI — Mali's prime minister was arrested and forced to resign Tuesday by soldiers who orchestrated a military coup in March, bringing fresh turmoil to the West African country, which is also struggling with the seizure of its north by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda. The arrest of Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra late Monday as he was preparing to leave for Paris for medical treatment was followed a few hours later by his forced resignation, along with the dissolution of his government.

The choices that U.S. officials are reportedly considering for a military intervention in Mali have grave implications [" U.S. weighs military aid for France in Mali ," news story, Jan. 16]. The Post reported that a senior U.S. official said, "Contingency plans for the use of armed drones were already in place and are being reevaluated. " Congress has not authorized U.S. military action in Mali. Without such authorization, the Obama administration cannot send armed drones to Mali under the War Powers...

FOR MONTHS, it has been evident to many global observers that a military intervention would be necessary in Mali, where Islamist radicals seized the northern half of the country last April. But planning for such an operation by African nations was prolonged, and though the U.N. Security Council approved an intervention, its deployment was not envisioned until this autumn. On Friday, French President Francois Hollande sent troops to Mali to confront the radicals, a decisive break in the international strategy and one that signals difficult choices to...

In pre-dawn darkness, a ­Toyota Land Cruiser skidded off a bridge in North Africa in the spring, plunging into the Niger River. When rescuers arrived, they found the bodies of three U.S. Army commandos — alongside three dead women. What the men were doing in the impoverished country of Mali, and why they were still there a month after the United States suspended military relations with its government, is at the crux of a mystery that officials have not fully explained even 10 weeks...

BAMAKO, Mali — Relatives say Mohamed Ould Ali, an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has been arrested in Mali's capital. He had been attempting to sue the Malian military for his father's recent disappearance. Ali belongs to the country's minority Arab ethnic group. He is the son of Ali Ould Kalbali, a 70-year-old man who disappeared along with seven other Arabs from Timbuktu in February. The eight were seen being arrested by soldiers, who used the men's...

BRUSSELS — A plan to turn Mali into a stable democracy rather than a terrorist haven drew massive support Wednesday as various nations and international organizations pledged 3.25 billion euros ($4.22 billion) to help reconstruct the conflict-ridden West African nation. The objective of the donors' conference in Brussels had been to raise 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) to support an ambitious 4.3 billion euro ($5.6 billion) plan drafted by Malian officials aimed at...

BAMAKO, Mali — Mali's interim leader says the country's presidential vote will take place on July 28 after months of speculation about the date. On a visit to Belgium ahead of a donors' conference for Mali, President Dioncounda Traore also said Tuesday that neither he nor any member of the transitional government would run for office. A field of about a dozen candidates is expected to take part in the election, which faces significant logistical and security...

BRUSSELS — On the eve of a major international donors' conference, the European Union announced Tuesday it was pledging 520 million euros ($674.8 million) over the next two years to help rebuild the west African country of Mali as a functioning state. The announcement was made by Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, who said the investment would benefit Europe as well as Africa. Until a military intervention by France, followed...

BAMAKO, Mali — A suspected jihadist opened fire on a crowd at an aid distribution point in a north Malian village, killing three civilians, a local official said. However, at least one local jihadist leader said the suspect was not a member of the radical groups who ruled the region for nearly 10 months until a French-led military operation was launched in January to oust them from power. Abda Ag Kazina, the deputy mayor of nearby Kidal, said the attack took place...

At the entrance to this fabled city, Malian soldiers clutching Kalashnikov rifles didn't dare approach the truck. Instead, they shouted from a distance of 15 feet for the passengers to step out, lift up their shirts and turn around. The soldiers were searching for explosives-laden belts. They didn't find any, but they were taking no chances: Suicide bombers had killed several of the troops' comrades in recent weeks. The soldiers allowed the truck to pass, still viewing the passengers with suspicion.

I was on the back of Paul Chandler's moped, riding through the red-dirt side streets of Bamako, scanning the landscape near two tall mosque towers whose pale plaster gleamed in the late sunlight. We passed a soccer pitch where boys were sending balls thocking into the air. We were searching for a wedding, one of many unfolding across Mali's low-lying capital as another weekend got underway. "I can't imagine living anywhere other than here," Paul said over his shoulder, "as a musician.

The United States is significantly expanding its assistance to a French assault on Islamist militants in Mali by offering aerial refueling and planes to transport soldiers from other African nations, the Pentagon announced Saturday night. The gesture comes amid a debate within the Obama administration about how deeply it should engage in the French effort to prevent Islamists from wresting control of the West African nation. French requests for more robust support from Washington raised a legal dilemma because...

BAMAKO, Mali — A radical jihadist group in northern Mali that ruled the town of Gao for nearly a year says it was behind the latest suicide attacks. Alioune Toure, the former head of the Islamic police in Gao, told Radio France Internationale the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa was responsible for the attacks. Toure said "the muhajadeen had struck and they're going to keep striking the enemy," according to the interview released Saturday. He called for foreign soldiers to...