Hizb at-Tahrir: Intervention in Mali is crusade against Muslims

France is expected to triple the number of troops it has sent to Mali The Lebanese branch of Hizb at-Tahrir has launched a fierce attack on the foreign intervention in the Republic of Mali, holding France responsible for \"a new crusade against Muslims.\" In a statement sent to Arabstoday, the political party said that the coup in Mali last year was \"a fatal hit to France,\" adding that it showed America\'s increasing influence in Mali because Captain Amadou Sanogo was chosen by the US embassy ??to receive military training and combat terrorism in the United States.  
The statement said Mali is under attack because it is \"an Islamic country, rich in Gold, Phosphate, Kaolin, Bauxite, Iron , Uranium and others minerals.\" Hizb at-Tahrir also accused France of wanting to return Mali to its \"African fold,\" while America is seeking to make Mali \"a fulcrum from which it can influence neighbouring countries.\"
The statement also said that Muslims in Mali and neighbouring countries reject any foreign interference, despite their regimes being satisfied with the intervention. The group gave the example of the Jihadist Salafist movement in Jordan, which has threatened the French army with \"booby-traps\" after French air strikes on Islamist strongholds in Mali. US news agency United Press quoted leader of the movement Abd Shehadeh as saying, \"our fighters will face the French army with booby-traps, not with flowers.\" The statement came during a memorial held on Monday evening in the village of Dalil, where a prominent member of the movement was killed during battle against the Syrian army. \"I tell the French, the Americans and the Jews to go back to their lands, go back to their countries, because there will be no peace between you and us,\" he added.
Shehadeh said that \"Jihad will go on, and when they launch an assault on the Muslims, we will fight them on every front.\" He described the French military operations in Mali as \"brutal aggression.\"
France sent troops to Mali on Friday, at the request of Malian authorities, to help its operation against Islamist militants in the southern regions.