Operation Serval it had lost a few days earlier. French airstrikes appeared to stop the rebel advance to the south which prompted the intervention and destroyed an Ansar Dine command post near Konna. France asked the U.S. to speed up its contribution by sending drones to improve surveillance over the vast area of northern Mali. The Pentagon was reported to have studied the French request. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced that his country would lend logistical support to the operation. ECOWAS troops preparing to deploy to Mali also decided to move up their arrival date to January 14
G. S. Jayanath the award. G. S. Jayanath G. S. Jayanath PWV, CR (, died 4 December 1997), was a Major in the Sri Lanka Army and a member of the army's elite Commando Regiment. He posthumously received the Parama Weera Vibhushanaya, the country's highest military award for gallantry, for his actions during Operation Jayasikurui in the Sri Lankan Civil War. Jayanath is the only Commando to receive this decoration. In May 1997, the Sri Lankan government forces launched an offensive named Operation Jayasikurui against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (commonly known as LTTE or Tamil Tigers). This operation was intended to