Operation Serval Operation Serval Operation Serval () was a French military operation in Mali. The aim of the operation was to oust Islamic militants from the north of Mali, who had begun a push into the center of Mali. Operation Serval followed the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2085 of December 20, 2012 and an official request by the Malian interim government for French military assistance. The operation ended on July 15, 2014, and was replaced by Operation Barkhane, launched on August 1, 2014 to fight Islamist fighters in the Sahel. Three of the five Islamic leaders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, Abdel Krim
British military intervention in the Sierra Leone Civil War first two were relatively minor operations: a series of air strikes against Iraq in 1998 codenamed Operation Desert Fox, and a deployment of a company of Gurkhas and special forces on peacekeeping operations in East Timor in 1999. The third operation, the first major deployment under Blair, was in Kosovo in 1999, where British forces led a NATO intervention in the Kosovo War. During the British operations in Kosovo, Blair delivered a speech in Chicago, in which he outlined his "Doctrine of the International Community". Blair advocated a greater use of humanitarian intervention—the use of armed force to protect a