Top brass warn No 10: avoid Mali escalation
Publié
par
Clifford Armion
le 15/01/2013
Activer le mode zenKim Sengupta
Defence chiefs have warned against Britain becoming enmeshed in the mission against Islamists in Mali, pointing out that any action could be drawn-out and require significantly greater resources than have so far been deployed.The most senior commanders are due to make their apprehension clear at a meeting of the National Security Council with the Prime Minister today. They have the backing of the Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond.
Following three days of French air strikes in Mali, the Islamists launched a counter-offensive yesterday showing they are not a spent force. They attacked government positions in the central town of Diabaly after crossing a river in small groups under cover of darkness. British resources are already stretched, with two RAF transport aircraft having to be diverted from Afghanistan to carry French equipment equipment to Mali. There is a shortage of such aircraft and they are being used to their full capacity. One of the Boeing C-17 Globemasters, hailed by David Cameron yesterday as "our most advanced and capable transport plane", broke down a few minutes later in Paris, en route to Africa.
Read on...
Pour citer cette ressource :
"Top brass warn No 10: avoid Mali escalation", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), janvier 2013. Consulté le 19/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/archives/archives-revue-de-presse/top-brass-warn-no-10-avoid-mali-escalation