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| Africa North |
| Germany to Send 650 Troops to Mali to Relieve France |
| 2015-11-26 |
| [AnNahar] Germany will send up to 650 soldiers to Mali, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday, to provide some relief to La Belle France in its global fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... jihadists. Von der Leyen made the announcement hours before German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... travels to Gay Paree to meet President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... to discuss support in the wake of the deadly November 13 attacks by the Islamic State group in the French capital. "We will and must stand firmly by La Belle France's side and do everything we can to help in this situation," von der Leyen said after a parliamentary defense committee meeting. "We will make a substantial contribution to this mandate. That is why we will soon put a mandate for 650 troops before (the German) parliament." She said the German soldiers would focus on logistics and reconnaissance as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Berlin had previously deployed around 10 soldiers as part of the U.N. mission and von der Leyen had in October already discussed increasing the number of troops. "The French are very pleased that we are boosting our engagement here," she said. Von der Leyen added that if the international mission manages to create more stability in Mali, "the French will no longer be so tightly bound to this part of the world". Around 1,500 French troops are deployed in Mali as part of the fight against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups which seized control of the country's north in 2012. Large parts of Mali remain beyond the control of government and foreign forces, despite the French-led mission launched in 2013. The EU also has a military training mission in Mali (EUTM) in the relatively quiet south of the country, to which Germany has contributed 200 soldiers. Merkel said earlier in a speech to parliament that Germany would "stand in solidarity at La Belle France's side". "If further commitments prove necessary, we wouldn't rule it out," she said. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 I think the standard insert for Merkel needs an update |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2015-11-26 16:26 |
| #1 A re-enforced rifle company with a Batallion kitchen. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2015-11-26 11:17 |