Mali

Thousands fill the streets of Gao cheering Malian troops and the French forces who led the advance. International Editor Lindsey Hilsum, the first British journalist there, witnessed the jubilation.

The Islamist stronghold Gao has been retaken by French special forces. Our International Editor Lindsey HIlsum is the only British journalist with the Malians now trying to hold the area.

The name of Mokhtar Belmokhtar went global when it was associated with the Algerian hostage crisis at a remote gas plant. But just how much of a true jihadi is he?

The Foreign Office advises Britons to leave the Libyan city of Benghazi immediately because of a “specific and imminent terrorist threat”.

There is a stark warning today the western intervention strategy in Mali is “flawed”. Part two of a special paper also says France and others are likely to be involved in the conflict “for some time”.

A rising death toll in Afghanistan, another round of army cuts and a new front opening on the war on terror. Is this the next phase in the decade of the drone?

Up to 5,300 soldiers are being made redundant from the army in the summer as part of the latest round of cuts to the armed forces, the government announces today.

Britain is on standby and the US is already transporting French troops into Mali. But a new paper says the west is “betting on the wrong horse” by intervening in the region.

UK support for the French-led military operation in Mali could be cranked up after David Cameron’s vow to show “iron resolve” in tackling Islamist terrorism in the wake of the Algerian hostage crisis.

Tariq Ramadan, professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford and Professor Kiron Skinner of Carnegie Mellon University, discuss North African jihadism.

French and Malian forces enter the central Mali town of Diabaly today after the al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels who seized it a week ago took cover in the bush to avoid air strikes.

Channel 4 News International Editor Lindsey Hilsum reports from Nioni, Mali, on the fear that the Algerian hostage crisis marks a new level of terror which could sweep Mali.

Residents of the Malian city of Niono have for years lived with the threat from jihadists – and now the rest of the world is beginning to understand.

As the hostage drama in Algeria continues, Channel 4 News looks at the shifting allegiances and blood feuds that make the Sahel region one of the most dangerous in the world.

Former French foreign minister and founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres, Bernard Kouchner, tells Channel 4 News the UK must help France in Mali, including providing troops.