Chad's
parliament has voted overwhelmingly to begin withdrawing the country's 2,250
troops from Mali.
Soldiers from Chad
have played an instrumental role in rooting out Islamists in Mali's
mountainous northern region.
Chadian President Idriss Deby told French journalists on Monday that he had
already begun withdrawing an army battalion from embattled Mali,
saying that his country's troops were not trained to wage a guerrilla war in Mali's
mountainous north.
"Chad's
army has no ability to face the kind of guerrilla fighting that is emerging in
northern Mali,"
Deby said in an interview jointly conducted by France's
Le Monde newspaper, TV5 Monde and Radio France Internationale (RFI).
"Our soldiers are going to return to Chad,"
the president added. "They have accomplished their mission."
But Deby went on to say that Chad
would contribute troops to a UN peacekeeping force, which is supposed to
replace the French-led military coalition in Mali.
Key role in Mali
intervention
Chad has
played an important role in helping French troops root out Islamist militants
from their redoubts in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains. France
intervened in Mali
last January, halting an Islamist advance toward the capital Bamako
and subsequently driving them from northern Mali's
major cities.
Chad has
claimed responsibility for the deaths of two top Islamist militant commanders
in northern Mali.
France has
confirmed the death of Abou Zeid, a top commander of al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM).
But Paris has not been able to
confirm Chadian claims that its troops killed Moktar Belmoktar, another top
Islamist commander. Belmoktar is responsible for the siege of the In Amenas gas
plant in Algeria
last January, which left scores of foreign oil workers dead.
"We have proof that he is dead, but we could not film it because he
blew himself up," Deby said. "We would not have wanted to distribute
images like that. But we know that people who were taken prisoner identified
him."
'Heavy price'
Pockets of resistance remain in Mali,
particularly in the region around the city of Gao.
Suicide bombings and ambushes have become increasingly common. At least three
Chadian soldiers were killed in a suicide blast in Kidal, north of Gao, last
Friday.
"We paid a heavy price for this mission," Chad's
prime minister, Dadnadji Djimrangar, told parliament during its session on
Monday.
At least 36 Chadian troops have been killed in Mali
and another 75 wounded. Chad
has spent some 57 billion CFA francs (87 million euros, $114 million) on its
military campaign in the West African nation.
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