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Malian Rebels Take Town and Vow to Avenge French Attack - New York Times

Posted: 14 Jan 2013 08:31 AM PST

By STEVEN ERLANGER, ALAN COWELL and ADAM NOSSITER

Published: January 14, 2013

PARIS — The French Defense Ministry said on Monday that a town in central Mali had fallen to Islamist insurgents from the north, hours after Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said his country's dramatic intervention there had succeeded in blocking a rebel advance that could have had "appalling consequences."

At the same time, an Islamist leader in Mali said France had "opened the gates of hell" for all its citizens by intervening, reinforcing concerns that the far-flung military operation in Africa could inspire vengeance in mainland France.

French forces, Mr. Fabius said in a radio interview late Sunday, were now "taking care" of rear bases used by Islamists who took control of much of the north of the country last year after a military coup in the capital, Bamako. The duration of the French operation was "a question of weeks," Mr. Fabius said, unlike the American-led military campaign in Afghanistan.

But within hours, reports began to emerge of a rebel counterattack in the small town of Diabaly, north of Ségou on the approaches to the capital — the first indication that the insurgents had regrouped after a wave of French airstrikes. The fighting in the town pitted government forces against rebels seeking to press southward under heavy fire from the air.

Reuters quoted residents and Malian military officials as saying that Islamists counterattacked after the insurgents infiltrated overnight in small groups. The French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said the rebels "took Diabaly after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian Army that couldn't hold them back."

The French intervention, which began on Friday and continued over the weekend, appeared to halt the main thrust of an Islamist rebel advance farther east, as West African nations authorized what they said would be a faster deployment of troops in support of the weak government.

French aircraft dropped bombs and fired rockets from helicopter gunships and jet fighters after the Islamists, who already control the north of Mali, pressed southward and overran the village of Konna, which had been the de facto line of government control.

The French struck two columns of Islamist fighters, the French Defense Ministry said. The first was in and around Konna, driving out the rebels from the village, and the second was to the west, across the Niger River, heading south toward Ségou.

That second column appeared from local accounts to still be advancing, with the rebels taking the small town of Alatona as well as Diabaly, a military camp on a main road to Ségou, the administrative capital of central Mali, according to The Associated Press.

A spokesman for the Malian Army, Lt. Col. Diarran Kone, confirmed the rebel attack on Diabaly.

The French defense minister, Mr. Le Drian, said on Monday that the situation in Mali "is evolving favorably," but he acknowledged that fighting continued.

"There is still a difficult spot in the west, where we're dealing with extremely well-armed groups and where the operations are ongoing," he said.

The rebel takeover of northern Mali began after the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya in October 2011, when Tuareg fighters from northern Mali, who had been fighting alongside Colonel Qaddafi's forces, returned home with weapons from Libyan arsenals.

They joined with Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militants who had moved to the lightly policed region from Algeria, and the two groups easily drove out the weakened Malian Army in late March and early April last year. The Islamists then turned on the Tuaregs, routing them and consolidating control in the region in May and June.

The rebels struck a defiant posture on Monday.

Oumar Ould Hamaha, an insurgent leader, said the French intervention had "opened the gates of hell for all the French."

He taunted French forces to launch a ground offensive, saying French warplanes had bombed from high altitude. "Let them come down onto the ground, if they are men," he said. "We will greet them with open arms."

France, he told Europe 1 radio, "has fallen into a trap which is much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia. And that is only the beginning." On Sunday evening, French jets attacked the northern town of Gao, an insurgent stronghold.

Steven Erlanger reported from Paris, Alan Cowell from London, and Adam Nossiter from Bamako, Mali.

Obama Presses House GOP on Debt Limit - New York Times

Posted: 14 Jan 2013 08:47 AM PST

By JACKIE CALMES and MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Published: January 14, 2013

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday warned Republicans against refusing to raise the nation's debt ceiling, calling such talk "irresponsible" and "absurd" and saying it would set off an economic crisis and financial hardship.

"They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy," Mr. Obama said during his final news conference of his first term in office. "The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip."

The president repeated his vow to seek what he called a "balanced" approach to reduce the nation's deficit during the months ahead. But he said he would not negotiate on the debt ceiling, and he said Republicans in Congress would be responsible for the effects of a refusal to raise it.

"It would be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth and tip us into recession," Mr. Obama said. "To even entertain the idea of this happening is irresponsible. It's absurd."

He added: "America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up."

Mr. Obama disclosed that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had already presented him with proposals to combat gun violence and promised to unveil them publicly later this week. He said his package would include a ban on assault weapons and on high-caliber magazines, as well as expanded background checks. But he declined to say how hard he would push for an assault weapons ban, and acknowledged that it and other gun measures might not pass.

"We're going to have to come up with answers that set politics aside. And that's what I expect Congress to do," he said, reiterating his support for gun measures. "Will all of them get through this Congress? I don't know. But what's uppermost in my mind is making sure I'm honest with the American people and Congress about what I think will work."

Mr. Biden said last week that he would present his recommendations to Mr. Obama on Tuesday, so the president's comments suggested that the timetable had been moved up. He said the vice president's working group has "presented me now with a list of sensible common sense steps" and that he would meet with Mr. Biden later on Monday. He added that he expected to make a "fuller presentation" later in the week in advance of his inauguration on Sunday.

Six days before he is to be inaugurated again, Mr. Obama is preparing a rapid-fire agenda for the early days of his second term. In addition to negotiations over the debt limit, Mr. Obama is preparing for a difficult debate over spending cuts and has said he will propose a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration system.

The president is also seeking approval of a new team to lead his government, having made nominations to replace his secretaries of state, defense and the Treasury. The efforts to reshape his administration — some of which are already proving difficult — are likely to dominate much of the next several weeks.

Holding a news conference now suggests that the president is eager to begin pushing that agenda even in advance of his inaugural speech next Monday and his State of the Union speech on Feb. 12.

Mr. Obama rejected the idea of a "Plan B" that might avoid a clash with Republicans over the debt ceiling. Some ideas that have been floated include minting a $1 trillion platinum coin that could allow the government to spend beyond the debt ceiling.

The president did not directly address the idea of such a coin, but he said: "There are no magic tricks here. There are no loopholes. There are no easy outs."

Mr. Obama said he understood the "impulse to get around this in a simple way," but he said that there was no way around the need for Congress to authorize enough debt as is necessary to pay for spending that had already been approved.

"What Congress can't do is tell me to spend 'X' and then say we're not going to give you the authority to pay the bills," Mr. Obama said.

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Isnin, 14 Januari 2013