French Rafale strikes over Mali

[SwatCat]

French air force strikes over Mali.

 

[JanjaWeed]

Good match practice... new way of marketing modern day warfare systems.

 

[DrSomnath999]

BAMAKO: French jets pounded the Islamist strongholds of Gao and Kidal in northern Mali Sunday, forcing insurgents to flee on the third day of a game-changing intervention that has been met with relief by the population and spurred the region into action.

“Stopping the terrorists – it’s done,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. “Today we started taking care of the terrorists’ rear bases.”

Rafale fighter planes struck bases used by Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Gao, the main city in northern Mali and the base from which ethnic-Tuareg rebels a year ago launched the offensive that touched off Mali’s descent into chaos.

France also targeted a large base in the northern region of Kidal, a security source said, targeting an area where rebels had stocked munitions and fuel.

In addition to the Rafales, former colonial ruler France has used Gazelle helicopters and Mirage jets since it launched the operation Friday to counter the rebel push south.

Algeria Sunday granted France permission to use its airspace to reach targets in Mali.

Residents in Gao, which had been under the control of a group called Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, said the French airstrikes had completely leveled the Islamists’ position and forced them out of town.

“We can see smoke billowing from the base. There isn’t a single Islamist left in town. They have all fled,” a teacher told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

French President Francois Hollande, who has been struggling on the domestic front and whose ratings have hit record lows, said the intervention had stopped the southward rebel advance seen as threatening the capital Bamako, but stressed France’s mission was not over.

Some residents of Gao rejoiced at the French strikes but said they needed friendly troops to fill the void as soon as possible.

“What we need now is for the [Malian] army to come here so that the Islamists can’t come back,” a young student said.

Residents of Timbuktu, which has seen some of the worst Islamist abuses over the past 10 months, said they were also eager for French jets to appear in the sky.

“The population is cut off from the south. We can’t travel, it’s become too dangerous,” said Elhaj Cisse, a literature teacher in the ancient northern city.

“We are waiting for this French intervention. We have been living in a very totalitarian regime for nine to 10 months,” he said.

A picture released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) on January 13, 2013 shows French soldiers equipping a French Rafale jet fighter with "Mica ER" missiles on January 12, 2013 at the French military base of Saint-Dizier before its departure for a mission in Mali. Four French Rafale fighter jets bombed targets on January 13, 2013 near the northern Malian city of Gao. France is using air and ground power in a joint offensive with Malian soldiers launched on January 11 a


For more refer
France pounds Islamist strongholds in northern Mali | News , International | THE DAILY STAR

January 13, 4 Rafale ready to take off to bomb their targets near Gao on the tarmac of the air base 113 Saint Dizier:

Configuration seems a Damocles pod + 6 GBU/AASM + 2 micas + 3 2000l tanks and perhaps a Reco NG pod on the last one , difficult to say.

IMAGE COURTESY-OLYBRIUS

RAFALE'S OPERATION VIDEO

[video]http://api.dmcloud.net/player/embed/4e7343f894a6f677b10006b4/50f31fd994a6f66a1601a99e/5781c0fa7a4d477983ddc7fb646cb9ad?exported=1[/video]

Mali: 60 jihadists killed in Gao

BAMAKO - Over sixty jihadists were killed Sunday in the city of Gao in northern Mali and its periphery during intense bombardment of the French forces , residents and head of security said on Monday. "More than sixty Islamists were killed in Gao and their bases near Gao. During the night, the Islamists who remained hidden in the houses came out to take the bodies of their comrades," told AFP a Gao resident, reached by telephone from Bamako, whose testimony was cross-checked by other residents and a regional security source.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...Id=CNG.3304651f564069c4405f252e4218863c.32 1

Mali crisis: militants killed as French fighter jets pound rebel camps

Residents in Gao confirmed French jets had struck the airport as well as the building that served as the base for the town's feared Islamic police. "The planes are so fast you can only hear their sound in the sky," Soumaila Maiga told R_euters. "We are happy, even though it is frightening. Soon we will be delivered."
Mali crisis: militants killed as French fighter jets pound rebel camps | World news | The Guardian

WOOH!!!
well looks like surgery specialist RAFALE really carrying it's operation quite well .May god bless the souls of terrorists as they dont have any clue how they got killed

 

[Sugarcane]

An other marketing campaign and demonstration of product????

 

[Cherokee]

oh . This news will give some people a serious case of Gas

 

[Alphacharlie]

January 13, 4 Rafale ready to take off to bomb their targets near Gao on the tarmac of the air base 113 Saint Dizier:

Configuration seems a Damocles pod + 6 GBU/AASM + 2 micas + 3 2000l tanks and perhaps a Reco NG pod on the last one , difficult to say.

IMAGE COURTESY-OLYBRIUS

RAFALE'S OPERATION VIDEO

[video]http://api.dmcloud.net/player/embed/4e7343f894a6f677b10006b4/50f31fd994a6f66a1601a99e/5781c0fa7a4d477983ddc7fb646cb9ad?exported=1[/video]

Mali: 60 jihadists killed in Gao



Mali crisis: militants killed as French fighter jets pound rebel camps



WOOH!!!
well looks like surgery specialist RAFALE really carrying it's operation quite well .May god bless the souls of terrorists as they dont have any clue how they got killed

This Inflated Note is Good...It would have been real Pleasing Had the Bird proved its worth Hammering Serbs (assuming) or enviroment like Chechniya........

In MALI apart fro Zu Guns and RPG you wouldnt get any much COunter offencive -- Anywase no use firing SCALP on Hooligans......

 

[Agent_47]

All of them are two seater .Why?

 

[farhan_9909]

And 13 of them were civilians,childrens

just putting off bombs doesnt make it close to next generations fighters like EFT,F-16 block 60,J-10B

 

[Cherokee]

An other marketing campaign and demonstration of product????

plus Killing Nasty Tuareg terrorist Rats who sneak up on Weak state of mali from Niger , Libya , Algeria and Burkina faso .

And They also Kill each other .

And 13 of them were civilians,childrens

just putting off bombs doesnt make it close to next generations fighters like EFT,F-16 block 60,J-10B

As if your counter Terrorism Ops goes without any causality , O mighty Bleeding heart .

All of them are two seater .Why?

To show em some love.

 

[SpArK]

And 13 of them were civilians,childrens

just putting off bombs doesnt make it close to next generations fighters like EFT,F-16 block 60,J-10B

Yup. Rafale is just 2nd Gen compared to the above. French are just speculating . Everybody knows it.

 

[DrSomnath999]

An other marketing campaign and demonstration of product????

hmm well some countries which cant sell their pirated jets to other countries must learn from them how to market those weapons atleast some one can buy their jets

 

[Crypto]

Does the opposition have any fighter jets or SAMs?

 

[Skull and Bones]

Excellent, Rafale just carrying forward the legacy of Mirage 2000 as a precision attack platform.

Does the opposition have any fighter jets or SAMs?

Libyan had, but couldn't do a jack.

 

[Sugarcane]

hmm well some countries which cant sell their pirated jets to other countries must learn from them how to market those weapons atleast some one can buy their jets

AFAIK Rafale is not Indian product, why you are heart burn

 

[DrSomnath999]

This Inflated Note is Good...It would have been real Pleasing Had the Bird proved its worth Hammering Serbs (assuming) or enviroment like Chechniya........

In MALI apart fro Zu Guns and RPG you wouldnt get any much COunter offencive -- Anywase no use firing SCALP on Hooligans......

well why only serbs & chechinya's what about afghanistan & libya then!!! ;what:

even the mighty soviets couldnt last against those afghani taliban stingers heavy casualities they suffer