• Malians praise French troops: 'If they leave, I will leave'

    Eric Gaillard / Reuters

    A woman waves to French soldiers Thursday as they head toward the recently liberated town of Diabaly. Some Malians are so grateful for the job the French have done routing Islamist insurgents, they say they hope the troops never leave.

    By Richard Valdmanis, Reuters

    DIABALY, Mali — Residents of Diabaly feared for their lives when French airstrikes pounded their small town in central Mali, shaking their homes and turning the pickup trucks of Islamist fighters into burning, twisted metal.

    Despite that, they are grateful to France.

    Children in bare feet and tattered T-shirts now play among the trucks' charred wreckage — a visible reminder that the town was the focus of the French-led war against al-Qaida-linked rebels bent on carving an Islamist state out of the Sahara.

    "I've told the children not to play with the trucks, but I can't stop them," said Adama Nantume, a retired farmer whose home was blackened by the laser-guided airstrikes that landed yards from his door. "Everyone here is happy about what the French have done."

    Diabaly, once a buzzing trading and agriculture hub, is now a forward headquarters for French troops piling into Mali since the Islamist rebels launched a dramatic offensive toward the capital in early January.

    Nic Bothma / EPA

    Manjou Cisse, 13, was wounded by shrapnel during fighting in Diabaly, which was recently liberated by French troops.

    French airstrikes halted the Islamist advance and Paris has vowed to rid Mali's north of the militants for fear they will create a base for international attacks.

    France has said its military will leave once the Islamists are defeated and Mali is returned to stability, with the aid of an African force.

    But many Diabaly residents say they don't want them to go.

    "I hope that the French stay for eternity. If they leave, I will leave," said Alou Gindou, a 46-year-old driver. "If it were not for the French, we would not be sitting here today."

    Many residents waved and roadside boutiques flew the France's tricolor flag as a column of French armored personnel carriers, jeeps and supply trucks trundled north along the route from the capital Bamako to reinforce Diabaly on Thursday.

    'Ground was shaking'
    Nantume was sitting beneath his mango tree when the convoy of Islamist rebels first arrived and sped past him toward the center of town on the evening of Jan. 14, extending their reach south from their desert strongholds of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu.

    "Everybody panicked and people began to flee," he said. "I went into my room and crouched in a corner. Bullets were flying everywhere and hitting the house."

    He said the airstrikes began not long afterward as night fell and lasted until the rebels melted away two days later.

    "As the planes circled, the jihadists tried to hide their trucks and they hid some here next to my house. The ground was shaking, the air was filled will bullets, and there were explosions," he said, massaging his palms nervously. "The inside of the house was incredibly hot. I thought I would die."

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  • 'We were so terrified': Jihadists leave trail of destruction, brutality in Mali town

    Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images

    A ripped up image of Jesus Christ is left on the ground of a Catholic church in Diabaly on Tuesday.

    By Rohit Kachroo, Correspondent, NBC News

    DIABALY, Mali -- Burned-out cars lie at the entrance to liberated Diabaly. Nearby, the stench of death rises from the window of an army vehicle discarded by the side of the road; inside are the bodies of four Malian soldiers, presumably slaughtered by jihadists.

    The Islamist army stormed through the town last week and left a destructive trail. They ruined the church, smashing away its cross and decapitating religious statues. They looted the pharmacy and destroyed homes. They were joined by Malian soldiers who defected, according to some local residents.

    Although the insurgents controlled Diabaly for only a few days, its terrified residents cheered when they left and French and Malian soldiers swept in.

    After launching airstrikes and a final strike, the French military have recaptured the key town of Diabaly from Islamist rebels. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports.

    "They are not Muslims," 53-year-old resident Oua Diarra said. "Muslims cannot be thieves. Muslims cannot loot. These men were terrorists.

    "The Islamists punished the children simply for crying at the terrible things that they saw ... We were so terrified."

    The jihadists were driven out before they could impose their form of Shariah law over the town's 40,000 people. They had said that they would do so once their grip on the town had been consolidated.

    "Most of us, the people of the town, had not been touched by the Islamists, but we knew that it would not be long," said one man who brought his family into the town square to shake hands and take photographs with the French soldiers. "They had threatened to punish anyone who broke their laws." 

    Gruesome propaganda videos from militant groups operating in Mali offer a glimpse of life in the militant-controlled north of the country. They include footage of men being lashed at a public ceremony. One video appears to show a man having his hand sliced off.

    "The Islamists came with food and said they would soon teach us Islamic law," said Mema Diakate, a resident who giggled with her girlfriends in the town's center. "We knew that eventually we would not be able to stand here -- to come outside and laugh and lead our lives."

    Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images

    A resident looks at Islamists' pickup trucks destroyed at a Malian military camp destroyed by airstrikes a week ago in Diabaly on Tuesday.

    Many residents in Diabaly described the rebels as "outsiders" and "foreigners" and said they included some "Arab men." They claim fighters from Chad, Somalia and even Afghanistan were among them. Others were deserters from the Malian army who, having failed to protect the town from the militants, dumped their uniforms and joined the enemy.

    Although most residents were delighted by the arrival of the French, many were critical of the inability of the Malian army to hold the garrison town.

    They recall dozens of fighters -- perhaps as many as 200 -- managing to flee in a convoy of 4x4 vehicles. Some headed north into the desert -- others vanished into forest. Many may have scattered and concealed themselves in the community.

    As the French advance north from Diabaly, they are progressing slowly in the knowledge that while their enemy is melting away, it hasn't disappeared.

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