The Mali situation

What the Djihadist use:

Why rebels and insurgent groups the world over love the Toyota Hilux pickup as much as their AK-47s.


I am sure Toyota loves the free advertisement...





Mali Army





Plus some Mi and Chinese Z-9 Helicopters that seem to be out of order

solarz said:

They don't even have tracks and use tires instead.

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i think wheels have been found to be more suited to desert terrain.

According to Chief of staff, helicopters and planes destroyed last night some of the Malian armor that fell into the hands of terrorists

This extremely interesting documentary was filmed by an Italian TV crew (RAI 3) in Ivory Coast and elsewhere in West Africa:



I actually took the time to watch it in full and consider it quite an eye opener. Has anyone heard of the CFA Franc? Western and Central African nations are still France's puppets till this very day

solarz said:

I will say this for France, they're smart to send in the ground troops right away instead of spending weeks on aerial bombings. Aerial bombings inevitably causes civilian casualties, and would quickly use up any good will from the local populace. By sending in ground troops, they can end the fight much more quickly and cleanly.

And the battle has been joined:

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Lets see how the ground war actually pans out before we start handing out the medals.

The Mali rebels are very well armed, trained and led, and sending in a small expeditionary force with light armored vehicles after only limited and modest air strikes to soften up the ground targets could easily turn into the wrong kind of bloodbath for the French.

I think the true test will come when the French have to go into rebel controlled urban areas.

plawolf said:

Lets see how the ground war actually pans out before we start handing out the medals.

The Mali rebels are very well armed, trained and led, and sending in a small expeditionary force with light armored vehicles after only limited and modest air strikes to soften up the ground targets could easily turn into the wrong kind of bloodbath for the French.

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Quite true. Remember the last two times France intervened in an ex-colony? Dien Bien Phu '54, Algeria '62... things did not end well for them.

I think the true test will come when the French have to go into rebel controlled urban areas.

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Doubt it. On a tactical level, the French could just ride around the desert as raiders, especially if the local population is more receptive towards them than the AQIM.

actually, in the southern theater of this campaign, the french shouldn't go in to urban areas, and, not simply for tactical reasons, but strategic.

as a result of a lack of assets in range, and of effective coordination amongst those of mali's neighbors that did have the appropriate air assets available (alpha jet and super tucano cas aircraft and a couple of mi 35s), the french air raid on the islamists' convoy approaching diabali was not sufficient to defend the objective. nevertheless, the surest way to deny the islamists' their objective of taking the south is to catch them, from the air, while on the move, and, basically, wipe them out from within visual range.

in order to do this, the french and african forces must stabilize the situations in bamako, segou, diabali and konna, as they are now doing, then, seemingly, end their intervention by withdrawing ground forces. leaving in place a coalition air force using forward observers along the roads and highways and deploying from bases in north western burkina faso and south eastern senegal, when the islamists regroup and decide to make another southern assault, the roads and highways south from nampala to diabali and from niafounke to konna can be turned into "highways of death".

after defeating the islamists in the south, the french and african ground forces could choose strategic northern locations at which to defeat the islamists in urban confrontations.

i'd recommend niafounke and gao.

Subedei said:

i think wheels have been found to be more suited to desert terrain.

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I agreed. Not to mention wheels are lighter than tracks therefore more fuel efficient. The purpose is mostly fighting a very lightly armored enemy with speed and a quicker response to fire support.

plawolf said:

I think the true test will come when the French have to go into rebel controlled urban areas.

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they are fighting in konna, as we write!

A good video