Fatoumata Diawara Rule 5

American Power Blog: Timbuktu and Fatoumata Diawara

Rule 5 and FMJRA

French troops advance on Islamic terrorists and rebels in Mali

French forces make inroads into Islamist terrorist positions in Mali

Update:
Liberated Mali town tells of horrors of Al Qaeda
A Time of Revenge in Timbuktu...

Colorado Man survives Algerian hostage crisis by hiding for two and a half days...

There is a lesson here.  If a terrorist or murderer come calling, fight if you can or hide.  Never surrender.

Update:
It is like Game of Thrones, but with less sex and a lot more brutal.
Liberated Mali town tells of horrors of Al Qaeda

Algerian Hostage Crisis ends with 19 hostages killed...

Al Qaeda terrorists took this BP natural gas plant in Algeria in protest to fighting in Mali

19 hostages dead in Algeria.  It does not appear any hostages survived.

Algeria's response to the crisis was typical of the country's history in confronting terrorists - military action over negotiation - and caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens. Algerian military forces twice assaulted the areas where the hostages were being held with minimal apparent negotiation - first on Thursday and then on Saturday.
The latest deaths bring the official Algerian tally of dead to 19 hostages and 29 militants, although reports on the number of dead, injured and freed have been contradictory throughout the crisis. Militants originally said they had seized 41 foreign hostages.

Update:
The Belmont Club:  The Algerians follow the Russian model, no compromise, if hostages die it is regrettable but that is the way it goes.  So long as the terrorists are killed.
American Thinker
TOM: Hostages dead in Algeria, French fight on in Mali
Liberated Mali town tells of horrors of Al Qaeda

Algeria Hostage Crisis ends with hostages being killed

Perhaps 35 hostages killed during a raid to rescue them.   There was a French and Algerian military led raid.  Right now there is no idea where the American hostages are.  They and some Irish hostages may have escaped.  This is a breaking story and the data right now is not clear.  Moe Lane describes it appropriately as ugly.

Update:
More from TOM on what is happening in Algeria.
American Power: Algeria Hostage Crisis Brings World To North Africa...
One American Still Missing... (Update: There appears to be more missing)
The al Qaeda terrorists want to exchange held Amercians for Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (the "Blind Sheikh") and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui
Hostage crisis ends with more deaths, details yet not known...
Liberated Mali town tells of horrors of Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda and Islamists when they take control: The destruction of architectural treasures in Mali and elsewhere...

As al Qaeda rebels try to take over Mali, there is another war under way...

Great Mosque at Djenne, Mali

Al Qaeda Islamist care a lot about architecture.  So much so that they seem hell bent on blowing up or tearing down any architectural style they disapprove of.  And you thought the New York Times architectural critics have a stick up their ass!

Great Mosque at Djenne, Mali

This Islamic war on the past was well documented in Afghanistan with the blowing up of the ancient Buddhas.
There is vandalism by Islamists in Morocco and Tunisia.
It is also occurring under the cover of civic improvement in Mecca and Medina, with Saudi Wahhabi tearing down century old Sufi buildings because they offended the current puritanism of Wahhabi tastes.  Saudi officials are even waging war on archeology.
The West may be inadvertently helping spread the Wahhabi Winter in places like Syria.

Timbuktu is full of architectural treasures.  Now ignorant jihadi rebels under the direction of Al Qaeda are engaged in destroying mosques and mausoleums they disapprove of in Mali.  The Islamists are especially focused on attacking anything they deem involving idolatry, especially if it is Sufi related.   This destruction is being called a war crime.

Update:
Liberated Mali town tells of horrors of Al Qaeda
A Time of Revenge in Timbuktu...

Is Nigeria the next Mali?

While the French deal with the situation in Mali, there is another troubled country just to the south.  Nigeria is a large country, both blessed and cursed with natural resources.  Its oil wealth is enormous, but the corruption spawned from it has arguably crippled the country.

It is a country with approximately 250 ethnic groups and over 500 languages spoken (although based in its British colonial past, its official language is English).  The three major tribal groups are Hausa and Fulani 29% (primarily Muslim and located in the north), Yoruba 21% (about half Muslim and half Christian and located to the east), and Igbo (Ibo) 18% (who are predominately Christian and located along the coast and in the Niger river delta).  Those groups make up the majority of the country.  The country is roughly half Muslim and half Christian, with varying animist and other minority religions.

The Ibo were the group that broke away as the succession state of the Republic of Biafra.  That occurred in 1967 and led to a brutal civil war in Nigeria that lasted for 30 months and resulted in over a million deaths (some estimates as high as three million).

Nigeria is a country with serious political, ethnic and religious differences.

Is Nigeria becoming the new frontier of al Qaeda?   Almost certainly there is some involvement from outside Islamic forces.  Nigeria own Islamist militant movement, Boko Haram, is trying to impose a Sharia state across the country.  Boko Haram has not been destroyed and continues to operate in the north.

Update:
Mali Jihadi Rebels still gaining, despite French air attacks...
Liberated Mali town tells of horrors of Al Qaeda
A Time of Revenge in Timbuktu...

French go into Mali to fight Al Qaeda

French go into Mali and attack Islamist Al Qaeda rebels, French hostage killed in Somalia.
Update:
French warplanes pound rebels.
A Time of Revenge in Timbuktu...

Mali:  It is NOT heaven on earth...

Update:  TOM:  France battles Islamists in Mali

Al Qaeda in Mali: Heaven on Earth it is not...

Al Gore's New Business Partner Al Jazeera describes
al Qaeda here as "gentle"

The new hot bed for Al Qaeda is in Mali:

Radical Islamists have turned northern Mali into an enclave for Qaeda militants and for the imposition of harsh Shariah law, which has been used to terrorize the population, particularly women, with amputations, stonings, whippings and other abuses. 

The Qaeda North Africa affiliate is now considered one of the best armed and wealthiest of the Qaeda franchises across the world, largely because of millions of dollars gained in kidnapping ransoms, drug proceeds and illicit trafficking in fuel and tobacco, General Ham said.

Al Qaeda controls an area in Northern Mali about the size of Texas.  They are well funded, stockpiled with weapons taken from Libya, prepared to fight, and spreading problems to countries around them.

Update:
Mali Jihadi Islamist Rebels still advancing, despite French airstrikes...
When Al Qaeda takes control:  The War on Architecture
Liberated Mali town tells of horrors of Al Qaeda
A Time of Revenge in Timbuktu...