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Subscribe to RSSThree weeks after French troops began their assault on northern Mali, Timbuktu is no longer controlled by an extremist group linked to al-Qaida. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports.
DOUENTZA, Mali — French troops took control on Wednesday of the airport of Mali's northeast town of Kidal, the last urban stronghold held by Islamist rebels, as they moved to wrap up the first phase of a military operation to wrest northern Mali from rebel hands.
A three-week ground and air offensive by French forces aimed at initially ending a 10-month Islamist rebel occupation of major towns is expected to eventually hand over to a larger African force.
The Africans' task will be rooting out insurgents hiding in the desert and mountains near Algeria's border.
After liberating the cities of Gao and Timbuktu, French forces have now taken control of the airport of Kidal, the last remaining northern urban stronghold in the hands of the Islamist militias in Mali. In Gao the brutal and distressing stories of those who fell victim to the Jihadists harsh system of Islamic law are emerging. Lindsey Hilsum Channel Four Europe reports.
"They (the French) arrived late last night and deployed in four planes and some helicopters," Haminy Belco Maiga, president of Kidal's regional assembly of Kidal, told Reuters.
However, the deployment of French troops to remote Kidal puts them in direct contact with pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA rebels operating there.
The Tuaregs, whose separatist rebellion last year was hijacked by the Islamist radicals, say they are ready to fight al-Qaida, but many Malians blame them for triggering the collapse of democracy and division with their northern revolt.
France's military operation in its former West African colony involves around 3,500 troops on the ground backed by warplanes, helicopters and armored vehicles. It is aimed at heading off the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for jihadist attacks in the wider region or Europe.
French and Malian troops retook the major Saharan trading towns of Gao and Timbuktu at the weekend.
There were fears that many thousands of priceless ancient manuscripts held in Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, might have been lost during the rebel occupation, but experts said the bulk of the texts were safe.
The United States and European governments strongly support the Mali intervention and are providing logistical and surveillance backing but do not intend to send combat troops.
The MNLA rebels, who want greater autonomy for the desert north, said they had moved fighters into Kidal after Islamists left the town earlier this week.
"For the moment, there is a coordination with the French troops," said Moussa Ag Assarid, the MNLA spokesman in Paris.
There were no reports of Malian government troops being in the town.
The MNLA took up arms against the Bamako government a year ago, seeking to carve out a new independent desert state.
Kambou Sia / AFP - Getty Images
People cheer as soldiers of Malian Col. Alaji Ag Gamou enter on Jan. 29, in Ansongo, a town south of the northern Malian city of Gao. Troops from Niger and Mali entered Ansongo on Jan. 29, which along with Gao was recaptured by French-led soldiers over the weekend in a lightning offensive against radicals holding Mali's north.
After initially fighting alongside the Islamists, by June they had been forced out by their better armed and financed former allies, who include al-Qaida North Africa's wing, AQIM, a splinter wing called MUJWA and Ansar Dine, a Malian group.
Risk of attacks, kidnappings
But as the French wind up the successful first phase of their offensive, doubts remain about just how quickly the U.N.-backed African intervention force, known as AFISMA and now expected to exceed 8,000 troops, can be fully deployed in Mali to hunt down the retreating al-Qaida-allied insurgents.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the French military operation, codenamed Serval (Wildcat), was planned to be a lightning mission that would last just a few weeks to avoid getting bogged down.
"Liberating Gao and Timbuktu very quickly was part of the plan. Now it's up to the African countries to take over," he told the Le Parisien daily. "We decided to put in the means and the necessary number of soldiers to strike hard. But the French contingent will not stay like this. We will leave very quickly."
Fabius warned that things could now get more difficult, as the offensive seeks to flush out insurgents with experience of fighting in the desert from their wilderness hideouts.
"We have to be careful. We are entering a complicated phase where the risks of attacks or kidnappings are extremely high. French interests are threatened throughout the entire Sahel."
An attack on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria earlier this month by Islamist fighters opposing the French intervention in Mali led to the deaths of dozens of foreign hostages and raised fears of similar reprisal strikes across North and West Africa.
Need for reconciliation
While the French operation has made destroying Islamist fighters, positions and assets with air strikes a priority, analysts say a long term solution for Mali hinges on finding a politicalsettlement between the northern communities and the southern capital Bamako.
Interim President Dioncounda Traore said on Tuesday his government would aim to hold national elections on July 31.
After months of being kept on the political sidelines, the MNLA said they were in contact with West African mediators who are trying to forge a national settlement to reunite Mali.
"We reiterate that we are ready to talk with Bamako and to find a political solution. We want self-determination, but all that will be up to negotiations which will determine at what level both parties can go," Ag Assarid said.
However, there have been cases in Gao and Timbuktu and other recaptured towns of reprisal attacks and looting of shops and residences belonging to Malian Tuaregs and Arabs suspected of sympathizing with the MNLA and the Islamist rebels.
France has called for international observers to be deployed to ensure human rights abuses are not committed.
"Reconciling the Tuaregs with their Malian co-citizens will be extremely complicated," said Francois Heisbourg, a special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a Paris-based think-tank.
Related:
French-led forces in Mali seal off Timbuktu; rebels torch ancient library
'We were so terrified': Jihadists leave trail of destruction, brutality in Mali town
Why France is taking on Mali extremists
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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Glad to see that the French tended to business. No Mr. Niceguy, and rules of war.....just go in and get the job done....and then get out. Leave the cleanup, and fixing up, and keeping up, to those who live there. It's the Mali's country. Do they want freedom enough to do what it takes/make the sacrifices that living in freedom always involves? And, if they can't do it because of not enough weapons, or of poorly trained troops, then help can be given to remedy those types of problems. But, they have to show that freedom is what they want, and they are willing to make a large down payment for it. (Seems like the French have learned from the U.S.'s little "trips" into Iraq and Afghanistan.......and that's ok, too. No reason for them to commit the same kinds of mistakes that we committed/are committing.)
"It is aimed at heading off the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for jihadist attacks in the wider region or Europe."
Once jihadists enter a place, it is tough to battle them. Mali will be no different.
Jihadist melt away; then they regroup; and start suicide bombings and start terrorizing in different forms.
Also the jihadists of other nations/regions join and start increasing guerilla warfare.
So only option is to use carpet bombings to flush out those withdrawing right away.
!991 Iraq war was one of the best wars, where even withdrawing forces in Basra were bombed.
Once we enter a war, we should win it without bothering about human rights and other bigg words, which jihadists don't bother any way.
Jonathan - you don't win a guerilla war by carpet bombing. That is, in fact, the best way to lose a guerilla war.
Fighting guerillas is finding needles in a haystack. The jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq always melted away because they looked and acted just like the local population, like the VC in Vietnam. Well, a wise man once said that the best way to find a needle in a haystack is to ask the hay. If the local population hates the guerillas too, they'll point them out and help you find them. Remember that these jihadis are foreigners, not Malians. The local populace sees them as invaders, not freedom fighters. They're happy to help, but if you start carpet bombing their towns they're only going to turn against you.
yeahbuhwha: I have been a close follower of wars. These days, Israel is one of the best in fighting wars with least losses.
If the local population hates guerillas, then arm them and make them fight.
In that case, you don't send forces.
"a wise man once said that the best way to find a needle in a haystack is to ask the hay."
The best option is not to go for a needle in a stinking haystack. Why go near such haystacks?
When haystack is too stinking and still if one wants to find a "needle", it is easier to burn the whole haystack and then find the needle.
The French leaving does not have anything to do with intellect. Just another way for them to surrender and leave waiving a white flag.
Your concern for human life is breathtaking. Where did you learn foreign policy, Reinhard Heydrich's School for Gifted Young Genocidists?
Until we accept that we're going to have a serious clash between "islamist" states and Western states this is all just a band-aid. In a war between two cultures...only one survives.
What's a "band-aid" here? Preventing the forceful creation of an Islamist state? If you really believe that there's a serious clash coming between Islamist and Western states, you'd think that one fewer Islamist state in N. Africa would make you jump for joy.
It is clash of religions between Muslims vs non-Muslims.
It is better for non-Muslims to join hands foregetting minor differences to reduce losses.
Any how, best of luck French!
The whole of the picture is that the unrest in the middle east and the Pacific are two brush fires burning out of control.
History will show that these two conflicts will be the catalyst for WW3 when the dust settles.
The Tuaregs are the key. The reason AQIM got so far was that they hijacked the Tuareg rebellion that had been already happening for a year. The Tuaregs pretty much kicked the Malian government out of Northern Mali themselves, and when they allied with the Islamists they got stabbed in the back and the Islamists took over themselves.
That the Tuaregs now are just as angry at the Islamists as the government is a great sign. Hopefully the French/Malians can work something out where there Tuaregs agree to stave off the Islamists in the region in exchange for autonomy.
Besides airlift and logistical support from the US, the fearsome French military machine takes the lead and rolls through Mali. "Viva la France!"
Big Dud 3501358: "fearsome french military machine" what a laughable joke and an oxymoron to boot. There was no resistance when they "rolled thru" and just like the gutless white flag waving mo's that they are, they leave before the insurgents regroup to fight. There new war cry:
croissant and marmalade for my men and beer for my horses!!
GO FRENCH GO! GO FRENCH GO! You are doing what the U.S. cannot do. If we went in we would want to talk to the Islamists about their feelings and rebuild all their roads and build them universities only to have the crazies blow it all up again . You French are doing it right!!! YEA!!!!
Yeah, keep up the good work Frogs. Send the Islamic and Muslim's all clear to their Allah with your fires of hell.
Mali is the latest example, where Islamic extremists have hijacked Mali from the Sufi, a moderate love and peace singing and dancing Muslims.
It also indicates that Sunni Islamic extremism is fast marching backwards to dangerous levels.
Followers of Islamic cult, especially House of Saud and other Sunni ME rulers inspired and funded Sunni Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB, Taliban and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days.
They are indulging in rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims (Darfur, S. Sudan, Nigeria and spreading like wild fire in many regions and Muslims (Libya, Yemen, Mali, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places).
Pakis and Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and other Sunni Arab League nations are responsible for 80 percent of world problems including economic ones.
Examine the devastations with Iraqi wars and now sanctions on Iranian oil and the resultant oil price manipulations.
They are making the lives of their own people also miserable by their Islamic religious madness to the intolerable levels.
Non-Muslims should not support Islamic extremists anywhere in the world!
Despite the evil murderous depravity of Jihadists they are no match for a real army, providing the politicians stay out of the operational aspects. As expected, the French forces have performed proficiently and professionally. Alas moving on to the “U.N.-backed” and “African” managed phase of the situation sounds like the gains will be short lived.
ARE these Frenchies involved in a Jihad?
ARE they Islamophobes????????
French and many non-Muslim nations are trying to confront Islamofascists and their supporters.
It was our decision to ensure the overthrow of Qaddafi that released his arsenal of weapons to the Islamic radicals. This is only the beginning of the unexpected consequences of that action.
We can thank France for cleaning up our mess this time. But...it ain't over til its over.
Your blogs are just amazing. but please also update news about Ghana Entertainment
Hey friend please also update latest Ghana News