A British spy plane yesterday flew out to join French military operations against al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Mali, raising fears of mission creep as the campaign entered its third week.
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Mali's army has been accused this week of summary executions of people suspected of supporting the insurgents Photo: EPA
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The Sentinel R 1 was a highly valued asset in the successful campaign to remove Col Muammar Gaddafi Photo: Andy Holmes/MOD/PA
By Alex Spillius, Diplomatic Correspondent and Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
7:35PM GMT 25 Jan 2013
The Sentinel R-1 air craft departed from RAF Waddington and will operate out of a US base in Senegal.
"We have now decided to deploy Sentinel, a surveillance capability that has proved its worth in Libya and on an ongoing basis for counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan," said Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary.
At the outset the French intervention to halt the southern advance of Islamist forces, Britain supplied two C-17 military transport aircraft.
But after further consultations with the French, it was decided at a meeting of the National Security Council earlier this week to offer the Sentinel. Flying with a crew of five, it can operate at an altitude of 49,000 feet and was a highly valued asset in the successful campaign to remove Col Muammar Gaddafi.
"It is redolent of Sierra Leone, where we sent in a minor force and ended up taking over the whole UN operation," said Matthew Jamison, a specialist in the region at the Royal United Services Institute.
"It suggests our involvement is creeping up and I imagine we will see expanded British involvement in the weeks and months to come."
The use of further transport and surveillance aircraft and then air power would be logical next steps. Britain is also likely to supply dozens of trainers for the Malian military under a European Union scheme due to start next month.
David Cameron has insisted that Britain will not deploy ground troops in Mali. But by warning of a "generational struggle" against al-Qaeda in north and west Africa, he made deeper participation more likely.
His warning about the region's fragility followed an attack by a jihadist group on an Algerian gas complex last week in which least 38 mostly foreign hostages died, including six Britons.
The operation is believed to have been planned in northern Mali, an area the size of France which fell to a coalition of Islamists and Tuareg rebels last March.
As warnings of regional instability spread, the Foreign Office on Thursday warned all Britons to leave Benghazi, the eastern Libyan city, because of a specific threat from Islamist militants. Other Western countries followed suit.
The French don't intend to make a big imprint in Mali, and are determined to deploy Malian and other African military as much as possible.
The United Nations is seeking £130 million to prop up the Malian armed forces and £154 million for a West African force of 5,000 which has begun to deploy in drips and drabs.
President Francois Hollande has however said his country's forces will be in Mali for as long as it takes to deal with the jihadist threat.
Western leaders are well aware how Afghanistan and Iraq proved much longer and costlier military campaigns than was initially hoped.
The difficulties of working with the Malian military were underlined yesterday when the most senior American military commander responsible for Africa, Gen Carter Ham, admitted that Pentagon training for Mali's army had not gone far enough.
"We didn't spend probably the requisite time focusing on values, ethics and a military ethos," he said.
Mali's army has been accused this week of carrying out extra-judicial killings and summary executions of people suspected of supporting the insurgents.
Human rights groups have made repeated claims that officers are not controlling their troops as they advanced north.
The French have succeeded in pushing back the insurgents, who appear to be melting away as the Taliban did when under pressure in 2001.
French fighter jets yesterday continued to bomb militant positions in the northern stronghold of Gao still held by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its proxies.
Rebel fighters who had held Timbuktu since last year were reported to have fled, leaving the ancient trading and religious centre with no electricity or water.
Mali's military and French forces pushed towards Gao, entering the city of Hombori. Residents said they stayed several hours in the area before heading back westward.
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