EU offers military training as France steps up Mali offensive

France has increased its troop strength in its former colony to 1,400 as it attempts to wrest back Mali’s north from groups linked to al-Qaida.

The British Government vowed to play its part in countering the creation of a new “terrorist haven” on Europe’s doorstep, with Foreign Office minister David Lidington saying: “A mission commander has been appointed and operational planning will now accelerate.”

The aim is to send a training squad of about 200 troops and back-up protection early next month.

Although at least 13 countries have offered support to the Mali mission, only France so far has soldiers there with boots on the ground. Troops from neighbouring Nigeria were expected to begin arriving yesterday.

Troops from Niger will also will be deployed along their shared border, said Aboudou Toure Cheaka, special representative for the president of the ECOWAS commission.

Forces from Burkina Faso and Togo are expected to be in place this weekend or early next week.

Security experts have warned the extremists are carving out their own territory in northern Mali from where they can plot terror attacks in Africa and Europe. Estimates of how many fighters they have range from less than 1,000 to several thousand. They are well-armed and funded and include recruits from other countries.

After a meeting in Brussels of EU foreign ministers, Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly said it was necessary to mobilize “the entire international community”. “What is happening in Mali is a global threat,” Coulibaly told journalists at a press conference. “Remember what happened on September 11,” he said, referring to the terrorist attacks in the United States. “It is that terrorism can happen anywhere, at any moment, to anyone.”

He pointed out that the hostage-taking in Algeria revealed to the world the true nature of the extremists.

The foreign ministers approved sending the military training mission but troops involved will not take part in combat.

Yesterday, fighting raged in one Mali town, airstrikes hit another and army troops raced to protect a third.

Banamba, a town only 90 miles (144 kilometres) from Mali’s capital was put on alert and a contingent of roughly 100 Malian soldiers sped there after a reported sighting of jihadists in the vicinity, marking the closest the extremists have come to Mali’s largest city and seat of government.

France has encountered fierce resistance from the Islamist extremist groups, whose reach extends not only over a territory the size of Afghanistan in Mali, but also as much as 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) east into Algeria, where fighters belonging to the cells in Mali kidnapped 41 foreigners at a BP-operated plant.

The kidnappers demanded the immediate end of the hostilities in Mali, with a spokesman in Mali, saying that “no foreigner is safe ... our movement is now global”.

France has stepped up its involvement every day, after launching the first air raids last Friday in an effort to stop the rebels’ advance, then only as far as the town of Konna, located 430 miles (690 kilometers) from the capital.

Fighting erupted anew yesterday in Konna between Islamists and Malian soldiers in the city whose capture by the militants first prompted French military intervention.

“The actions of French forces are ongoing,” French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in Paris yesterday.