Mali gets US funds to fight al-Qaeda

The US fears Islamic militants are gaining a foothold in Africa, especially in the failed state of Somalia, where it recently killed a senior militant with links to al-Qaeda. But a wider threat is seen to come from al-Qaeda's North African branch in the Islamic Maghreb, which emerged in 2007 from an Algerian Islamist group that claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide attacks and car bombings along the Mediterranean coast. So now Washington will give Mali's army $5 million of military hardware, including trucks, communications equipment and clothing. The Malians are already being helped in fighting the rebels by Algeria and the West’s new darling, Libya.