Mali official: French military arrived to help
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) - A Malian official says that French military have arrived in the troubled West African country to help its military amid an advance by radical Islamists.
Col. Abdrahmane Baby, a military operations adviser for the foreign affairs ministry, on Friday confirmed that French troops were in the country but gave no details about how many or what they were doing.
The announcement confirms reports from residents in central Mali who said they have seen Western military personnel arrive and that planes had landed there throughout the night.
Earlier in the day, French President Francois Hollande said that the former colonial power was ready to help to the stop the Islamist extremists.
The Islamist rebels Thursday seized the strategic town of Konna which is the closest they have come to central Mali.