DTN News: French Military Has An Alternate Route To Afghanistan Via Kazakhstan

DTN News: French Military Has An Alternate Route To Afghanistan Via Kazakhstan *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) ASTANA, Kazakhstan - October 9, 2009: Kazakhstan agreed on last week to allow French military personnel and equipment to transit through the Central Asian state to Afghanistan. A soldier from the French Foreign Legion, a unit of the French army, patrols in Deh Sabz district of Kabul province October 3, 2009. About 800 legionnaires are stationed in Afghanistan as part of NATO efforts to contain the Taliban insurgency. Picture taken October 3, 2009. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy oversaw the signing of the transit agreement by their foreign ministers. Afghan school boys watch military vehicles from the French Foreign Legion, a unit of the French army, on patrol in Deh Sabz district of Kabul province October 3, 2009. About 800 legionnaires are stationed in Afghanistan as part of NATO efforts to contain the Taliban insurgency. Picture taken October 3, 2009. It was not immediately clear whether Kazakhstan, which has no direct border with Afghanistan, will be used as a transit point for French airlifts, or it will be part of a land route also involving Russia and other ex-Soviet states. Earlier this year, Kazakhstan allowed the United States to ship non-lethal supplies for its Afghan troops through its territory as Washington tried to diversify supply routes due to frequent attacks on convoys in Pakistan. The deal follows a similar agreement between the United States and Russia which has said it would also negotiate transit for US allies including France. The US-led coalition has boosted troop numbers in Afghanistan in an effort to suppress the Taliban insurgency which, according to some analysts, threatens to spill into Central Asia. France is also in talks with Kazakhstan's southern neighbour Kyrgyzstan to renew an agreement allowing French military to use the Kyrgyz Manas air base to support Afghan operations.

DTN News: French Military Aircraft Searching Atlantic Ocean For Clues Of Air France Flight 447

DTN News: French Military Aircraft Searching Atlantic Ocean For Clues Of Air France Flight 447

(NSI News Source Info) DAKAR, Senegal - June 5, 2009: Members of the flight crew of a French military Atlantic Model 2 stand on the tarmac after returning from the site of the crash of an Air France flight, at the French military air base in Dakar, Senegal Thursday, June 4, 2009.

A Brazilian helicopter crew recovered the first wreckage from Air France Flight 447 on Thursday, pulling a cargo pallet from the sea.

DTN News: French President Nicolas Sarkozy Opens France's First Gulf military Base / First French Military Base Opens In The Persian Gulf

DTN News: French President Nicolas Sarkozy Opens France's First Gulf military Base / First French Military Base Opens In The Persian Gulf

(NSI News Source Info) PARIS - May 27, 2009: France inaugurated its first military base in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, underlining an ambition to help meet the strategic challenge from Iran and capture a share of the region's rich arms market for the French defense industry. President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a one-day visit to the United Arab Emirates' capital, formally opened a 900-foot quay allocated to the French navy in Abu Dhabi's Zayed Port, a French air force installation at the Dhafra Air Base just outside the city and a barracks at a downtown military camp for several hundred French soldiers. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, second right foreground, and United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister Sheik Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, right foreground, attend the opening ceremony of a French naval base in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, May 26, 2009. The outposts are France's first permanent overseas military installations outside its former colonies in Africa in 50 years, reflecting a shift in national security strategy in which Sarkozy has put less emphasis on traditional African allies and more on the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. In addition to being sources of oil and potential markets for French technology, these areas are key to France's security and that of the world, Sarkozy declared in a white paper on national security soon after assuming power in 2007. The decision to look beyond Africa also fits Sarkozy's desire to be a more active strategic partner of the United States. He has increased the number and combat role of French troops in Afghanistan, for instance, and in March returned France to NATO's integrated military command after a 43-year absence. The Abu Dhabi base, he said, illustrates "the responsibilities that France, as a world power, intends to assume alongside its special partners in a region that is a nerve center for the entire world," news agencies reported. As part of the new base arrangements, Sarkozy signed agreements with Abu Dhabi's rulers updating defense accords that date from 1975, essentially pledging France's assistance to Abu Dhabi during crises. These accords have taken on new importance as Iran, on the other side of the Gulf, rises as a regional power and pursues a nuclear research program that many experts think could lead to nuclear weapons within several years. In an interview with local journalists, Sarkozy reiterated that it would be "unacceptable" for Iran to acquire a nuclear arsenal. He urged intensification of U.S. and European efforts to draw Iran into negotiations on limiting its nuclear program. As part of its commitment to Abu Dhabi, France has been negotiating for months on the sale of 60 Rafale warplanes. The aircraft, manufactured by Dassault Aviation, has been on the market for more than a decade, but only the French military has bought it. Dassault's chief executive, Charles Edelstenne, accompanied Sarkozy to inaugurate the military facilities, as did two members of the Dassault family. But French officials said no sale is likely to be announced yet, as negotiations are underway on the price, estimated to be as high as $8 billion, and what kind of radar and other equipment the planes would carry. United Arab Emirates' Crown Prince Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, right, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, center, are seen at the al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi during a show of four twin-engined Rafale fighter jets manufactured by France's Dassault Aviation in Abu Dhabi, Tuesday, May 26, 2009. The main competitor is the F-16, a U.S.-manufactured workhorse that has been sold around the world. But Abu Dhabi's rulers have shown a desire to diversify their military suppliers, previously buying 380 Leclerc tanks and about 60 Mirage 2000 warplanes from France. In all, French officials told reporters, France has supplied about half the UAE military's equipment. In addition to military sales, French officials have been seeking to interest the United Arab Emirates in nuclear electricity plants.

French In Show Of Force In Deadly Afghan Valley

French In Show Of Force In Deadly Afghan Valley

(NSI News Source Info) Sarobi, Afghanistan - March 15, 2009: It is still night when the convoy moves off, winding through hills like a huge snake: around 100 French armored vehicles descend into a valley east of Kabul, their lights lacing through the darkness. More than 500 French soldiers and 300 Afghan police and soldiers, as well a handful of men from the Norwegian Special Forces on all-terrain quad bikes are on the ground for ‘Operation Three Valleys’ in the district of Sarobi. French soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Above, reconnaissance drones and helicopters watch over the only route, a difficult and dusty road that is vulnerable to ambushes. It was just a few kilometres (miles) from here that the French military last August suffered its heaviest loss in 25 years when 10 soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack. ‘We want to show the people and the insurgents that the French army is not here for revenge but that we will go where we want to and when we want to,’ says Colonel Franck Chatelus, who commands the French battalion in Kabul. The Afghan forces lead this push into a sometimes hostile area.‘This is also the time to show that the Afghan army today is not the same one of a few years ago, when it looted the country and maltreated the population,’ Chatelus adds.The area, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the capital, is austere, stoney and mountainous; in the valley, small villages of mud-brick houses suddenly appear alongside a few fields. French soldiers take position on the ridges while Afghan troops cover the police as they enter a village called Washa Kalay with a hostile reputation. A quick search of some houses reveals nothing of interest but there is a field of opium poppies a lucrative crop that officials say finances some of the insurgents. Police unenthusiastically uproot some of the shoots with a wooden spade, stamping on others.‘The insurgents who were in the village have gone to the other side of the mountain in Laghman province,’ says Mohibullah Babakar Khel, from the Afghan intelligence service. Later the French colonel addresses elders in the village ‘We offer our hand to the insurgents who agree to give up and cooperate with us.’ ‘Give us your mines and bombs so that we can destroy them otherwise they risk killing or wounding your children.’ The impoverished residents demand a well, electricity, a school. ‘If a school is built, this area has to be secure. And a school would have to be for boys and for girls,’ says a French officer, referring to a tendency to prevent girls getting an education.The French put on an impressive security cover for a visit the next day to the village of Siri Kalay but wait an hour for the police to arrive enough time for any insurgents to hide arms or ammunition.This time only Afghan police enter the village, making for an unoccupied house that is said to belong to a ‘Commander Rostam,’ a member of the radical Hezb-e-Islami faction who has fled to Pakistan. The raid nets police and military uniforms as well some electrical components, perhaps used for detonators. ‘Here the people are all against us,’ says 20-year-old policeman Nasratullah, who earns just 120 dollars a month. ‘Policemen have been killed close by. Without the planes of the international forces, they would have ambushed us.’ The rebels may have been silent but the area is still dangerous on the first day of the operation, mine clearers destroyed three rockets already in their launchers.But the foreign troops part of a steadily expanding NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that now numbers about 62,000 across Afghanistan believe they have made an impression. ‘The outcome of the operation is not material but psychological and moral. Little by little we are gaining the confidence of the population,’ says Chatelus, the French colonel. ‘The insurgents were unable to do anything, they have been discredited in the eyes of the people,’ he says