French army increases the deployment of Ground Forces to the North of Bamako 1701131

French Armed Forces Operation Serval in Mali

Thursday, January 17, 2013, 08:00 AM

French army increases the deployment of Ground Forces to the North of Bamako.

The French fighters aircraft continue their air strikes in Mali and more land forces are sent to Bamako. During the night of Tuesday, January 16, 2013, French troops with armoured vehicles, ERC 90 Sagaie, VAB and VBL were deployed north of Bamako. Wednesday, helicopters and fighters aircraft continued their attacks in the region near the city of Diabali, destroying a dozen of targets.

Military equipment for French troops in Mali is loaded on Belgian military transport C-130 Hercules.

A field hospital is now operational, with the capacity to make 10 Surgical operations per day.

The deployment of French forces in Bamako has accelerated thanks to the help and support of foreign allied armies. Denmark, United Kingdom, and Belgium with military transport aircraft C-17 and C-130 Hercules have transport equipment, ammunition and food to Mali.

These aircraft have made flights between French military bases and Bamako, via N’Djamena et Abidjan.

French soldiers are battling Islamist rebels in direct clashes on the ground in central Mali, Malian and Western officials said on Wednesday, January 16, 2013. French troops had been sent in as spotters to help French fighters aircraft find their targets.

Beyond that, a Malian colonel said that his army’s ground troops had joined French forces on Wednesday and ringed the village of Diabaly, which Islamist fighters had seized the day before.

A group of French soldiers with armoured vehicles VAB and ERC 90 Sagaie will secure a strategic bridge on the River Niger in Markala (Western Mali) to prevent access by Islamist rebels. This bridge is a main crossing point to the capital Bamako

French troops with armoured vehicles VAB and ERC 90 Sagaie arrived near the town of Markala on Wednesday to secure a strategic bridge.

French military source, says that armed groups of Islamist fighters are near the town of Segou, 80 km North of Markala, 120 km northeast of Bamako.

Around hundred French soldiers with twenty armoured vehicles left yesterday from the airport of Bamako, to join the town of Merkala and to strengthen the French Special Forces an the Malian soldiers.