BRUSSELS — France won support from European Union nations Thursday for its military campaign in Mali and offers of military aid, possibly including troops, at emergency talks on the crisis. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said after the talks that “all the countries expressed their solidarity with Mali and support for France's action”. Many planned to offer logistical or material support to back efforts by France and African troops to rout the rebels, he said. Some of France's partners were mulling “an offer of troops” though “we won't force anyone,” he added. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said at a separate press conference that “many countries said they were willing to support France in any way and they did not rule out sending troops.” “We were united in welcoming the quick response of France” last week in stopping a march on the Malian capital, Bamako, by rebels, Ashton said. Meanwhile, fighting raged in one Mali town, airstrikes hit another and army troops raced to protect a third, on the seventh day of the French-led military intervention to wrest back Mali's north from Al-Qaeda-linked groups. Banamba, a town located only 144 km from Mali's capital was put on alert overnight, and a contingent of roughly 100 Malian soldiers sped there Thursday after a reported sighting of some rebels in the vicinity, marking the closest that the extremists have come to Mali's largest city and seat of government. France has encountered fierce resistance from the extremist groups, whose reach extends not only over a territory the size of Afghanistan in Mali, but also as much as 1,000 km east in Algeria, where fighters belonging to the cells in Mali kidnapped as many as 41 foreigners at a BP-operated plant, including Americans. They demanded the immediate end of the hostilities in Mali, with a spokesman in Mali, saying that “no foreigner is safe ... our movement is now global,” according to Oumar Ould Hamaha who spoke by telephone to The Associated Press. The first Malian troops arrived in Banamba late Wednesday, with a second group coming Thursday. The small town northeast of Bamako is connected by a secondary road to the garrison town of Diabaly, which was taken by extremists earlier this week, and has been the scene of intense fighting with French special forces, who continued bombardments and a land assault there on Thursday. A city official in Banamba, who has been involved in getting the Malian troops to defend the town, said they received reports that a rebel convoy had left Diabaly on the road connecting it to Banamba. “We don't have a (military) base here, we have no defenses. So the military has come to secure the town,” he said. “From Monday to today, no jihadists have entered our town. But there are reports that a column (of rebel vehicles) was seen heading toward us from Diabaly.” Meanwhile, France has increased its troops' strength in Mali to 1,400, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. “The actions of French forces, be it air forces or ground forces, are ongoing,” said Le Drian in Paris. “They took place yesterday, they took place last night, they took place today, they will take place tomorrow.” — Agencies
