Mali extremists threat to European security: France

Islamist extremists occupying northern Mali pose a threat not just to the immediate region but to European security, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said. For if nothing was done, they would make the territory a ‘terrorist sanctuary’, he told French media on Monday. His comments came as West African leaders meeting in Nigeria agreed on a 3,300 strong force to wrest control of northern Mali from the Islamist groups who seized the territory in March. The Islamist groups imposing an extreme version of Islamic law in northern Mali ‘are in the process of transforming this region into a terrorist sanctuary,’ Le Drian told RTL radio, LCI television and Le Figaro newspaper.