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US airlift of French troops to Mali to last weeks
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_MALI_FIGHTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-01-23-04-08-54DJENNE, Mali (AP) -- The U.S. airlift of French forces to Mali to fight Islamic extremists is expected to go on for another two weeks, Pentagon officials said, as hundreds of African troops from Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso and Senegal are now joining the French-led intervention.
The Islamist fighters have controlled the vast desert stretches of northern Mali, with the weak government clinging to the south, since a military coup in the capital in March last year unleashed chaos.
The U.S. Air Force is keeping between eight and 10 people at the airport in Mali's capital to help with the incoming and outgoing flights, the Pentagon said late Tuesday.
The U.S. Air Force already has flown five C-17 flights into Bamako, delivering more than 80 French troops and 124 tons of equipment, it said.