Ansar Dine News

Bamako - Usually the mainstream press simply describes the rebels in Mali as Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda linked. Yet at least four distinct groups are active in the northern rebellion.

French troops deployed in Mali against the Islamists that have taken charge of great swathes of the country face a well armed and well prepared enemy, France has acknowledged.

Bamako - French military intervention in northern Mali has provoked threats from Islamic extremists that French citizens are at risk "wherever they find themselves in the Muslim world."

Britain has offered logistical help to assist the French operation against Islamic extremists in northern Mali. Two military transport planes are to be deployed though British personnel will not be used in a combat role.

Bamako - Malian troops with backing from French gunships claim to have killed around 100 Islamist fighters in attempts to capture Kona, a key town, recently occupied by the Ansar Dine fighters from the north.

Islamic fanatics controlling northern Mali have once again taken pickaxes to ancient monuments, as they vow to destroy all the remaining mausoleums in the fabled city of Timbuktu.

Bamako - The United Nations Security Council has approved employment of African-based forces to Mali for a year. The resolution also demanded that the military stop interfering in government affairs and that order be re-established through elections.

Bamako - In a promising development, two separatist groups who took control of northern Mali back in April have agreed to negotiate to end the crisis and avoid an impending military action to retake the area.

Bamako - Ansar Dine, the main Islamist group in control of northern Mali, has sent negotiators to both Burkina Faso and Algeria, in an attempt to forestall an invasion by a U.N. backed force to defeat the rebels.

Bamako - France will move surveillance drones to be used in northern Mali, an area controlled by Ansar Dine and other militant groups. French officials are also in talks with U.S. officials in Paris this week.