Operation Serval of the ground and the populations". Mathieu Guidère, a scholar of Islam and the Arab world at the University of Toulouse, said in an interview published in the newsmagazine Jeune Afrique, that without the French military intervention the state of Mali would have fallen. France's stated rationale for the operation is that to do otherwise would allow "a terrorist state at the doorstep of France and Europe." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the intervention in a phone call with French President François Hollande as "a brave step against extremist Islamic terrorism". Egypt's former President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist, criticized
Military leadership in the Afghan Civil War Military leadership in the Afghan Civil War The Civil War in Afghanistan (1978–present), also known as the "Afghan Civil War" and several other names, was a civil war in Afghanistan. The civil war started when the Communist Party of Afghanistan took all political power in Afghanistan on 27 April 1978. This event led indirectly to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan. Sergei Sokolov Valentin Varennikov Boris Gromov Babrak Karmal (PDPA) Mohammad Najibullah (PDPA) Abdul Rashid Dostum (PDPA) Burhanuddin Rabbani (Islamic State) Ahmed Shah Massoud † (Islamic State) Mohammed Fahim (Islamic State) Bismillah Khan (Islamic Republic) Tommy Franks (CENTCOM) John P.