UN Security Council has approved plans for military intervention in Mali 2112121.

The resolution authorizes an African-led force to support Malian authorities in recovering the north but sets benchmarks before the start of offensive operations, beginning with progress on a political roadmap to restore constitutional order.

West African nations want to send a 3,300-strong force to oust armed groups that moved into the vast desert area and rolled out strict Islamic law after a military coup in Bamako in March created a power vacuum in the country.

In parallel to political efforts to draw the Tuareg rebels into a coalition against the extremist groups, European nations and the international force, to be known as the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA), will first train Mali's army.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has said that Bundeswehr troops could be sent to support such a mission, but that the idea of them getting involved in any actual combat operations was completely out of the question. France, which has already pledged logistical support for the mission, has also ruled out sending combat troops.

When President Amadou Toumani Toure was forced from his position by a military cadre in mid-March, a coalition of the independence-seeking National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the reportedly al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) took advantage of political uncertainty to sweep across the northern region, capturing territory and towns including Gao and Timbuktu.