• Internal complaint to al Qaeda fighter: You don't call, you don't hand in your expenses

    SITE Intel Group via AP, file

    This image from video purports to show militant leader Moktar Belmoktar, who fell out with the leaders of North Africa's branch of al Qaeda, according to letters found by The Associated Press.

    By Rukmini Callimachi, The Associated Press

    DAKAR, Senegal - After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of al Qaeda's North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee. In page after scathing page, they described how he didn't answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders.

    Most of all, they claimed he had failed to carry out a single spectacular operation, despite the resources at his disposal.

    The employee, international terrorist Moktar Belmoktar, responded the way talented employees with bruised egos have in corporations the world over: He quit and formed his own competing group.

    And within months, he carried out two lethal operations that killed 101 people in all: one of the largest hostage-takings in history at the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria in January, and simultaneous bombings at a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger just last week.

    The al Qaeda letter, found by The Associated Press inside a building formerly occupied by their fighters in Mali, is an intimate window into the ascent of an extremely ambitious terrorist leader, who split off from regional command because he wanted to be directly in touch with al Qaeda central.

    It's a glimpse into both the inner workings of a highly structured terrorist organization that requires its commanders to file monthly expense reports, and the internal dissent that led to his rise. And it foreshadows a terrorism landscape where charismatic jihadists can carry out attacks directly in al Qaeda's name, regardless of whether they are under its command.

    Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon and one of three experts who authenticated the 10-page letter dated Oct. 3, said it helps explain what happened in Algeria and Niger, both attacks that Belmoktar claimed credit for on jihadist forums.

    Ennahar TV via Reuters TV, file

    Hostages are seen with their hands in the air at the In Amenas gas facility in this still image taken from video footage taken on January 16 or January 17, 2013.

    "He's sending a message directly north to his former bosses in Algeria saying, 'I'm a jihadi. I deserve to be separate from you.' And he's also sending a message to al Qaeda, saying, 'See, those bozos in the north are incompetent. You can talk to me directly.' And in these attacks, he drew a lot of attention to himself," says Atallah, who recently testified before Congress on Belmoktar's tactics.

    Born in northern Algeria, the 40-something Belmoktar, who is known in Pentagon circles by his initials MBM, traveled to Afghanistan at the age of 19, according to his online biography. He claims he lost an eye in battle and trained in al Qaeda's camps, forging ties that would allow him two decades later to split off from its regional chapter.

    Over the years, there have been numerous reports of Belmoktar being sidelined or expelled by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The letter recovered in Timbuktu, one of thousands of pages of internal documents in Arabic found by the AP earlier this year, shows he stayed loyal to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, until last year, and traces the history of their difficult relationship.

    The letter, signed by the group's 14-member Shura Council, or governing body, describes its relationship with Belmoktar as "a bleeding wound," and criticizes his proposal to resign and start his own group.

    "Your letter ... contained some amount of backbiting, name-calling and sneering," they write. "We refrained from wading into this battle in the past out of a hope that the crooked could be straightened by the easiest and softest means. ... But the wound continued to bleed, and in fact increasingly bled, until your last letter arrived, ending any hope of stanching the wound and healing it."

    They then begin enumerating their complaints against Belmoktar in 30 successive bullet points.

    First and foremost, they quibble over the amount of money raised by the 2008 kidnapping of Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, the highest-ranking United Nations official in Niger, and his colleague. Belmoktar's men held both for four months, and in a book he later published, Fowler said he did not know if a ransom was paid.

    The letter reveals al Qaeda wanted to use the kidnapping to force concessions in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, but the plan was stymied when Belmoktar struck his own deal for about $900,000 for both men. That's far below the $3 million-per-hostage that European governments were normally paying, according to global intelligence unit Stratfor.

    "Rather than walking alongside us in the plan we outlined, he managed the case as he liked," they write indignantly.

    The complaint reflects how al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, initially considered one of the group's weaker wings, rose to prominence by bankrolling its operation with an estimated $89 million raised by kidnapping-for-ransom foreign aid workers and tourists. No less than Osama bin Laden endorsed their business model, according to documents retrieved in the terror leader's hideout in Pakistan.

    The letter also confirms for the first time that payments from European governments went directly toward buying arms to carry out attacks against Western targets, as long speculated by experts.

    The council chides Belmoktar for not following this practice. Referring to him by his nom de guerre, Khaled Abu Abbas, the letter says: "(The chapter) gave Abu Abbas a considerable amount of money to buy military material, despite its own great need for money at the time. ... Abu Abbas didn't participate in stepping up to buy weapons. So whose performance deserves to be called poor in this case, I wonder?"

    The list of slights is long: He would not take their phone calls. He refused to send administrative and financial reports. He ignored a meeting in Timbuktu, calling it "useless." He even ordered his men to refuse to meet with al Qaeda emissaries. And he aired the organization's dirty laundry in online jihadist forums, even while refusing to communicate with the chapter via the Internet, claiming it was insecure.

    Sounding like managers in any company, the Shura leaders accuse Belmoktar of not being able to get along with his peers. They charge that he recently went to Libya without permission from the chapter, which had assigned the "Libya dossier" to a rival commander called Abou Zeid. And they complain that the last unit they sent Belmoktar for backup in the Sahara spent a full three years trying to contact him before giving up.

    "Why do the successive emirs of the region only have difficulties with you? You in particular every time? Or are all of them wrong and brother Khaled is right?" they charge.

    The sharpest blow in the council's letter may have been the accusation that, despite this history of terrorism, Belmoktar and his unit had not pulled off any attack worthy of mention in the Sahara.

    "Any observer of the armed actions (carried out) in the Sahara will clearly notice the failure of The Masked Brigade to carry out spectacular operations, despite the region's vast possibilities — there are plenty of mujahedeen, funding is available, weapons are widespread and strategic targets are within reach," the letter says. "Your brigade did not achieve a single spectacular operation targeting the crusader alliance."

    In December, just weeks after receiving the letter, Belmoktar declared in a recorded message that he was leaving the al Qaeda chapter to form his own group. He baptized it, "Those Who Sign in Blood."

    Related:

    1 American killed, 2 escape in Algeria hostage crisis, US officials say

    Uranium mine, military barracks attacked by suicide bombers in Niger

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Two fleeing Islamist leaders seized in Mali

    Alain Amontchi / Reuters

    Malian soldiers escort prisoners, who are suspected al-Qaeda-allied fighters, in front of a military cell in Mopti, Monday.

    By Cheikh Diouara and John Irish, Reuters

    Tuareg rebels in northern Mali said on Monday they had captured two senior Islamist insurgents fleeing French air strikes toward the Algerian border as France pressed ahead with its bombing campaign against al-Qaida's Saharan desert camps.

    Pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA rebels said one of their patrols seized Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed, an Islamist leader who imposed harsh Shariah (Islamic) in the desert town of Timbuktu, and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed, thought to be responsible for the kidnapping of a French hostage by al-Qaida splinter group MUJWA.

    "We chased an Islamist convoy close to the frontier and arrested the two men the day before yesterday," Ibrahim Ag Assaleh, spokesman for the MNLA, told Reuters from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. "They have been questioned and sent to Kidal."

    France has deployed nearly 4,000 ground troops, as well as warplanes and armored vehicles in its three-week-old operation to break Islamist militants' 10-month grip on northern towns and return the country to normal.

    It is now due to gradually hand over to a U.N.-backed African force of some 8,000 troops, known as AFISMA, of which around 3,800 have already been deployed.

    Paris and its international partners want to prevent the Islamists from using Mali's vast desert north as a base to launch attacks on neighboring African countries and the West.

    After meeting French President Francois Hollande in Paris, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden praised the "decisiveness and incredible competence" of France's operations. He backed France's call for U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed in Mali.

    The legendary Timbuktu has come back to life after the French drove Islamist extremists out. Many priceless manuscripts were  saved from being destroyed— some hidden or smuggled to safety. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports.

    "We agreed on the need to, as quickly as reasonably possible, establish an African-led mission to Mali and, as quickly as is prudent, transition that mission to the United Nations," Biden said, flanked by Hollande.

    Paris believes that deploying U.N. peacekeepers to Mali could eliminate problems over funding the African mission and fears of ethnic reprisals by Malian troops against light-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs associated with the Islamists.

    The MNLA, which seized control of northern Mali last year only to be pushed aside by better-armed Islamist groups, regained control of its northern stronghold of Kidal last week when Islamist fighters fled French air strikes into hideouts in the nearby desert and rugged Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.

    The Tuareg group says it is willing to help the French-led mission by hunting down Islamists. It has offered to hold peace talks with the government in a bid to heal wounds between Mali's restive Saharan north and the black African-dominated south.

    "Until there is a peace deal, we cannot hold national elections," Ag Assaleh said, referring to interim Malian President Dioncounda Traore's plan to hold polls on July 31.

    Many in the southern capital Bamako -- including army leaders who blame the MNLA for executing some of their troops at the Saharan town of Aguelhoc last year -- strongly reject any talks.

    "One of the first conditions for reconciliation is to disarm rebel groups," Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly told Reuters in Paris. "We must first liberate the north of Mali and then we can organize elections." 

    Related:

    French troops enter last Islamist stronghold in northern Mali

    French-led forces in Mali seal off Timbuktu; rebels torch ancient library

    US to provide aerial refueling for French Mali effort

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Why extreme Islamists are intent on destroying cultural artifacts

    Saeed Khan / AFP - Getty Images, file

    A member of the Taliban stands near the remnants of a Buddha statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in March 2001. The militia blew up two ancient Buddhas after a decree from their supreme commander to destroy all of the country's statues.

    By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

    LONDON -- They have destroyed the iconic Buddhas of Bamiyan, smashed down the fabled “end of the world” gate in the ancient city of Timbuktu and even called for the destruction of Egypt’s ancient pyramids and the Sphinx.

    Extreme Islamist movements across the world have developed a reputation for the destruction of historic artifacts, monuments and buildings.

    This week, officials confirmed that up to 2,000 manuscripts at Mali's Ahmed Baba Institute had been destroyed or looted during a 10-month occupation of Timbuktu by Islamist fighters. Some experts have compared the texts to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

    To many in the West, such actions are simply wanton vandalism. However, experts say the thinking behind it is actually part of a wider tradition of rooting out idol-worship and superstition found in Christianity and Judaism as well as Islam.

    French and Malian troops have retaken control of Timbuktu from Islamist rebels. In the ancient city, much damage has been done, thousands of priceless manuscripts have been destroyed. Tim Ewart reports.

    Usama Hasan -- an Islamist for about 20 years, who now works to counter extremism at the U.K.’s Quilliam Foundation -- said most Muslims had “a kind of tolerant attitude" and a "live-and-let-live" approach toward such things.

    "Mainstream Muslim thinking tends to tolerate these historic artifacts," he said. "Even if they don’t agree with the superstitions, they don’t want to provoke the community and don’t see it as a big deal."

    But Hasan said he understood the mindset of those condemned as cultural vandals “very well” as he “used to subscribe to it.”

    He said that during his Islamist days he would say things like: “Yes, let’s destroy the pyramids when we take over Egypt.”

    "It’s very sad. You lose all that cultural heritage, music, history, art, ancient books. If they (Islamists) don’t agree with what’s in them … they seem to think it’s OK to burn these books," he said. "If you’re not Muslim or don’t subscribe to the same narrow interpretation the militants do, they will oppose everything you do and do so violently if they need to."

    Hasan said there were a number of stories explaining how the Sphinx lost its nose, but one account suggests that a religious figure in the 14th century, Saim El-Dahr, tried to get rid of it.

    “There was a common belief that the Sphinx had some power over the level of the River Nile … he wanted to smash the locals’ superstitious belief in the power of the Sphinx and tried to destroy it,” he said.

    Nov. 8: Until the fundamentalist Taliban government and its al-Qaida allies destroyed them in 2001, two immensely important Buddha statues were nestled in the Bamyan valley of Afghanistan. As NBC's Richard Engel reports, the region is slowly coming back to life as the restoration of the figures begins.

    Similar reasoning was likely behind some actions of Islamists in Mali. Breaking down the gate in Timbuktu was probably designed to show any local people who still believed in the fable that it was not actually true, Hasan said.

    But while the Taliban justified the 2001 demolition of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by saying they were idols, Hasan said there was more to it.

    “The Taliban’s destruction of the statues was a political gesture. The United Nations had sent money to restore these statues at the same time there were sanctions [against Afghanistan],” he said. “The Taliban said children were dying because of this … and the U.N. was more concerned about statues than people.”

    Noah Charney, professor of art history at the American University of Rome, said that the destruction of idols dated back to biblical times, when warring factions would destroy monuments of rivals that were thought to have religious power.

    NBC's Richard Engel travels to the legendary city of Timbuktu, which is cradled within one of West Africa's poorest nations.

    The Ten Commandments include a proscription against making “any graven image” of anything in heaven or on Earth, but Charney said this had been “quickly forgotten” or interpreted to mean only images of “false idols” by many Christians.

    The reason many Ancient Greek and Roman statues of gods are missing their heads and arms is not faulty construction, Charney said. Instead, it is often the legacy of the 6th-century Pope Gregory the Great.

    “He found the classical statuary to be very beautiful, but there was a danger people would revert back to their pagan ways” and start worshiping them, Charney said. By removing the head and arms, which often held items identifying the deity, the statue “lost all its power because you don’t know which god it is.”

    In seventh century Byzantium, clashes between Christians over the alleged worship of icons gave rise to the term “iconoclasm,” meaning the destruction of religious images.

    The Reformation in the 16th century also saw many statues in churches literally defaced by Protestants in Europe.

    Benoit Tessier / Reuters

    A museum guard displays a burned ancient manuscript at the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu, Mali, on Thursday.

    The city of Timbuktu has borne the brunt of recent Islamist iconoclasts, with rebel forces in Mali setting fire to its historic library as they retreated in the face of French and Malian government troops this month.

    After the militants took the city last year, they destroyed mausoleums and a gate that local superstition said would only open at the end of the world.

    In November, an ultraconservative religious figure in Egypt, Murgan Salem al-Gohary, told local television that the Sphinx and pyramids at Giza should be leveled, an idea that sparked headlines but is shared by only a tiny minority of Egyptians.

    “All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues,” he said.

    While he celebrated the destruction of the two 6th-century statues -- one 180 feet, the other 125 feet high -- in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley in March 2001, world cultural body UNESCO described it as a “tragic” act that “shook the world.” 

    Beyond the ugliness of the fighting between the U.S. and the Taliban sits Bamiyan Province, a national treasure in a nation divided by war. NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel tours the region and speaks with its people about their hopes and dreams.

    The wrecking ball has also been swung to significant effect in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

    According to an estimate in 2005 by Sami Angawi, an expert on Islamic architecture, at least 300 historic buildings were demolished over the previous 50 years. 

    The reason, espoused by the Wahhabi movement within Islam, was that people might start idolatrously worshipping structures associated with Muhammad, rather than God.

    David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam at the U.K.’s Birmingham University, said iconoclasm was “a strain in all religions unfortunately,” but added that was “present at the moment in Islam more than anywhere else.”

    President Francois Hollande went on a sort of victory tour through Timbuktu, in Mali, recently held by extremists connected with al-Qaida. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports from Mali.

    In contrast, he said that there were “teachings in the Quran that are actually very open and tolerant. There are teachings that accept other ways than the way given to Muhammad.”

    And Thomas said some Islamists were in danger of committing the very sin they despise.

    “The Taliban have an attitude that almost shades into idolatry itself. They are saying they know what the truth is, that they have a monopoly on the truth and that they can therefore almost take the place of God in judging who is right and who is wrong.”

    Related:

    Timbuktu: A journey to Africa's lost city of gold

    Dynamited Afghan Buddha statue may be saved

    Post-revolution, Egypt pyramids back in business

  • French troops enter last Islamist stronghold in northern Mali

    Three 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.

    By Richard Valdmanis, Reuters

    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.

  • French-led forces in Mali seal off Timbuktu; rebels torch ancient library

    Thousands of residents came out to celebrate after French and Malian troops entered the town of Gao on Sunday, with a parade of motorbikes honking their horns and people weeping in disbelief. Lindsey Hilsum of the UK's Channel 4 News reports.

    By Adama Diarra and Richard Valdmanis, Reuters

    GAO, Mali -- French and Malian troops on Monday sealed off Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, but fleeing Islamist rebel fighters torched several buildings in the ancient Saharan trading town, including a library of priceless manuscripts.

    Without a shot being fired to stop them, 1,000 French soldiers including paratroopers and 200 Malian troops seized the airport and surrounded the centuries-old Niger River city, looking to block the escape of al-Qaida-allied fighters.

    The retaking of Timbuktu followed the swift capture by French and Malian forces at the weekend of Gao, another major northern Malian town which had also been occupied by the alliance of Islamist militant groups since last year.

    A two-week intervention by France in its former Sahel colony, at the request of Mali's government but also with wide international backing, has driven the Islamist rebel fighters northwards out of towns into the desert and mountains.

    A French military spokesman said the assault forces at Timbuktu were being careful to avoid combat inside the city so as not to damage cultural treasures and mosques and religious shrines in what is considered a seat of Islamic learning.

    But Timbuktu's mayor, Ousmane Halle, reported that fleeing Islamist fighters had torched a South African-funded library in the city containing thousands of priceless manuscripts.

    Nic Bothma / EPA

    A French soldier in Mali on Sunday.

    "The rebels set fire to the newly constructed Ahmed Baba Institute built by the South Africans ... this happened four days ago," Halle Ousmane told Reuters by telephone from Bamako. He said he had received the information from his chief of communications who had traveled south from the city a day ago.

    Ousmane was not able to immediately say how much the concrete building had been damaged. He added the rebels also torched his office and the home of a member of parliament.

    The Ahmed Baba Institute, one of several libraries and collections in the city containing fragile ancient documents dating back to the 13th century, is named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare and houses more than 20,000 scholarly manuscripts. Some were stored in underground vaults.

    'Free as the wind'
    The French and Malians have faced no resistance so far at Timbuktu, but they face a tough job of combing through the labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and mud-brick homes between alleys to flush out any hiding Islamist fighters.

    "We have to be extremely careful. But in general terms, the necessary elements are in place to take control," French army spokesman Lieutenant Thierry Burkhard said in Paris.

    Timbuktu member of parliament El Hadj Baba Haïdara told Reuters in Bamako the Islamist rebels had abandoned the city. "They all fled. Before their departure they destroyed some buildings, including private homes," he said.

    The United States and European Union are backing the French-led Mali operation as a strike against the threat of radical Islamist jihadists using the West African state's inhospitable Sahara Desert as a launch pad for international attacks.

    In the first installment of Rock Center's Hidden Planet series, Richard Engel travels to Mali, on the edge of the Sahara desert, to discover the city of Timbuktu.

    They are helping with intelligence, airlift of troops, refueling of planes and logistics, but do not plan to send combat troops to Mali. 

    In Gao, crowds celebrated the arrival of French forces. Many smoked cigarettes, women went unveiled and some men wore shorts to flout the severe Shariah Islamic law the rebels had imposed for months. Youths on motorcycles flew the flags of Mali, France and Niger, whose troops also helped secure the ancient town on the Niger River.

    "Now we can breathe freely," said Hawa Toure, 25, wearing a colorful traditional African robe banned under Shariah for being too revealing. "We are as free as the wind today. We thank all of our friends around the world who helped us," she said.

    About a dozen rebels were killed in Gao, while French forces suffered no losses or injuries, the French defense ministry said.

    Youths in Gao said there were still some rebels and rebel sympathizers around, but they were being found. "Yesterday, even, we found one hiding in a house. We cut his throat," one man said, asking not to be named. "Today we found another and we brought him to the army."

    A third northern town, the Tuareg seat of Kidal, in Mali's rugged and remote northeast, remains in rebel hands.

    Related:

    Jihadists leave trail of destruction, brutality

    PhotoBlog: Eerie photo of French soldier in Mali upsets military officials

    Analysis: Why France is taking on Mali extremists

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Al-Qaida linked fighters destroy 'end of the world' gate in Timbuktu

    AFP - Getty Images

    A still from a video shows Islamist militants destroying an ancient shrine in Timbuktu on Sunday. The hardline Islamists who seized control of Timbuktu along with the rest of northern Mali three months ago, consider the shrines to be idolatrous.

    By F. Brinley Bruton and news services

    World cultural body UNESCO was set to create a special fund to protect Mali's heritage on Tuesday after al-Qaida-linked Islamists attacked historic and religious landmarks in the city of Timbuktu for a third day, breaking down the door to a 15th century mosque that -- according to legend -- had to remain shut until the end of the world.

    A UNESCO committee also called for a mission to go to Mali to work with local and national leaders to stop what it called "wanton destruction."

    "In legend, it is said that the main gate of Sidi Yahya mosque will not be opened until the last day (of the world)," Alpha Abdoulahi, the town imam, told Reuters by telephone. 

    Yet Islamists intent on erasing traces of what some regard as un-Islamic idolatry smashed down the door to the mosque early on Monday, saying they wanted to "destroy the mystery" of the ancient entrance, he said. 

    "They offered me 50,000 CFA ($100) for repairs but I refused to take the money, saying that what they did is irreparable," Abdoulahi added.

    In a statement emailed to msnbc.com Tuesday, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee called for a series of measures to help save Mali's ancient sites and condemned the "repugnant" destruction of Timbuktu's mausoleums.

    UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has appealed for a halt to the attacks. 

    AFP - Getty Images

    A still from a video shows an Islamist militant celebrating and shouting after destroying an ancient shrine in Timbuktu on Sunday.

    "There are mausoleums, there are mosques, there are manuscripts which represent enormous value for humanity and it is totally unacceptable what is happening there," Bokova said on Monday. 

    The U.N. body seeks to protect places around the world it classifies as world heritage sites, arguing they are of special cultural significance and should be preserved for posterity. 

    Government powerless
    Mali's government in the capital Bamako about 630 miles south has condemned the destruction, but is powerless to halt them after its army was routed by rebels in April. It is still struggling to bolster a return to civilian rule after a March 22 coup that emboldened the rebel uprising further north. 

    Witnesses: Islamists destroy ancient sites in Timbuktu

    The attacks have been widely condemned inside Mali as well. 

    "The 333 saints would be turning in their graves," the country's Les Echos newspaper wrote on Monday, referring to 333 revered Sufi imams, sheiks and scholars buried in Timbuktu. 

    In the first installment of Rock Center's Hidden Planet series, Richard Engel travels to Mali, on the edge of the Sahara desert, to discover the city of Timbuktu.

    "Today there are old women, old people in Timbuktu who say that maybe it is the end of the world," entrepreneur and former Timbuktu resident Male Dioum told Reuters.

    Islamists of the Ansar Dine group say the centuries-old shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu are idolatrous. They have so far destroyed at least eight of 16 listed mausoleums in the city, together with a number of tombs. 

    Ansar Dine and well-armed allies, including al-Qaida splinter group MUJWA, have hijacked a separatist uprising by local Tuareg MNLA rebels and now control two-thirds of Mali's desert north, territory that includes the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. 

    Romaric Ollo Hien / AFP - Getty Images, file

    Islamists rebels approach Timbuktu in rebel-held northern Mali in April. "Members of AQIM, supported by (the armed Islamist group) Ansar Dine, have destroyed the tomb of Saint Sidi (Mahmoud Ben) Amar. They set fire to the tomb," an official told AFP in on May 5 on condition of anonymity. "They promised to destroy other tombs, Timbuktu is in shock. Now they want to take and control other tombs and manuscripts," the official said.

    The size of the area under their control is bigger than France, heightening fears that Mali will become a jihadist haven. 

    The MNLA rebels criticized the Islamists' destruction of holy sites, underlining a growing rift between the two groups that had formed an uneasy alliance to take over the north of the country. 

    "The perpetrators of these heinous acts, their sponsors, and those who support them must be made accountable," MNLA spokesman Hama Ag Mahmoud told Reuters in an interview in Nouakchott. 

    Desert tourism
    Sufi shrines have been attacked by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year. The attacks also recall the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. 

    According to Time magazine, those who adhere to a more orthodox brand of Islam tend to harbor a particular animosity to Sufism, who have a more mystical interpretation of the divine and a faith that is often rooted in pre-Islamic traditions and a reverence for saints and dead wise men.

    Located on an old Saharan trading route that saw salt from the Arab north exchanged for gold and slaves from black Africa to the south, Timbuktu blossomed in the 16th century as an Islamic seat of learning, home to priests, scribes and jurists. 

    In recent years, Mali had sought to create a desert tourism industry around Timbuktu. But even before April's rebellion many tourists were being discouraged by a spate of kidnappings of Westerners in the region claimed by al-Qaida-linked groups. 

    F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report. 

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow World News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook


  • Witnesses: Islamists destroy ancient sites in Timbuktu

    Romaric Ollo Hien / AFP - Getty Images

    Islamists rebels of Ansar Dine, seen on April 24, 2012 near Timbuktu, Mali, have destroyed the tomb of Saint Sidi Mahmoud.

    By Reuters

    DAKAR -- Armed fighters of Mali's al-Qaida-linked Ansar Dine Islamist group on Saturday destroyed mausoleums in the ancient trading city of Timbuktu, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, witnesses said. 

    The attack came just four days after UNESCO agreed to a request by the West African state to place Timbuktu on its list of heritage sites in danger following the seizure of its northern two-thirds in April by separatist and Islamist rebels. 

    "They have already completely destroyed the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud (Ben Amar) and two others. They said they would continue all day and destroy all 16," local Malian journalist Yeya Tandina said by telephone of the 16 most prized resting grounds of local saints in the town. 

     "They are armed and have surrounded the sites with pick-up trucks. The population is just looking on helplessly," he said, adding that the Islamists were currently taking pick-axes to the mausoleum of Sidi El Mokhtar, another cherished local saint. 

     "It looks as if it is a direct reaction to the UNESCO decision," Timbuktu deputy Sandy Haidara said by telephone, confirming the attacks. 

     UN: Ancient treasures of Timbuktu under threat in Mali unrest

    Since government forces were routed in April, Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups with links to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have gained the upper hand over less well-armed Tuaregs whose goal is a secular, independent northern state. 

    Ansar Dine is pushing for strict sharia, Islamic law, across the whole of the country and deems un-Islamic the shrines of Timbuktu, an expression of the local Sufi brand of the religion. 

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow World News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook


     

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • British couple flee Timbuktu as town falls to al-Qaida

    By msnbc.com staff

    A British couple made a dramatic escape from Timbuktu, Mali, after the town fell to fighters linked to al-Qaida, The Daily Telegraph of London reported Wednesday.

    The newspaper said militiamen aided Neil Whitehead, 58, and Diane English, 53, in making an 850-mile desert trek to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania.

    The couple since 2010 operated the budget Hotel Alafia, catering to backpackers and independent travelers, until they learned al-Qaida offered to pay for their deaths, the Telegraph said.

    Read the original story in The Telegraph

    The town fell to the al-Qaida-linked fighters last weekend after a military coup left the area defenseless. The couple tried to leave Saturday but fleeing Mali soldiers blocked the roads, The Telegraph said.

    English told the Telegraph the couple ran into a firefight she called “rather alarming.”

    “We went back to the house again to keep our heads down but there was a lot of firing in the town -- it was clear a lot of people had a lot of weapons," English told the Telegraph.

    British and French diplomats helped arrange their escape through the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the main rebel group in the region, the report said. This Tuareg force helped kinfolk in Libya during that country's civil war, then returned with weapons looted from Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s abandoned armories.

    The MNLA told alleged al-Qaida members hunting for the couple that they had already left, the Telegraph said. It's not clear what the relationship between the MNLA and the al-Qaida-linked fighters is.

    After a three-day, largely sleepless excursion in old army trucks, the couple are seeking refuge in the French Embassy in Nouakchott, the Telegraph reported.

    Bing map

    A British couple reportedly fled from Timbuktu, Mali, to Nouakchott, Mauritania.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

  • UN: Ancient treasures of Timbuktu under threat in Mali unrest

    EPA/Ulrike Koltermann

    A file picture shows the minaret of a clay-mosque in Timbuktu, Mali.

    By Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

     

    Cultural treasures in the ancient city of Timbuktu are under threat from the armed conflict that has gripped Mali following last month’s coup, the United Nations warned on Monday.

    Irina Bokova, director-general of the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said in a blog posting that the recent takeover of the city by Tuareg rebels could damage the management and conservation of the three mosques and 16 mausoleums there, as well as well as the Tomb of Askia in another Mali city, Gao.

    She called on all sides in the political unrest to “protect these heritage treasures, to which the international community and UNESCO attach great importance," adding that they are designated World Heritage Sites.

    Control of the gold-rich west Africa nation was seized by a military junta on March 21, prompting separatist Tuareg rebels in the north of the country to take over towns and cities. They planted a flag in Timbuktu late on Sunday after a battle with the army, forcing the junta to pledge a return to civilian power.

    Bokova’s posting said Timbuktu attractions “reflect the golden age of an intellectual and spiritual capital in the fifteenth century” and “played a vital role in spreading Islam in Africa, carrying the identity and dignity of a whole people."

    A centuries-old crossroads on important trading routes, Timbuktu’s isolated position made it a global byword for remoteness and inaccessibility.

    The modern-day city is much less important, and its cultural richness is overshadowed by poverty and the environmental threat posed by desertification.

    “It is very remote and, in the current situation, not a place for tourists,” Alex Vines, an expert on Africa at British think tank Chatham House, told msnbc.com.

    However, Mali is strategically significant for western countries, including the United States, he said.

    “Prior to the coup, Mali was one of the few countries in the area with a democratic government and it has made some important progress in counter-terrorism so the US will want to see a political solution and an end to the violence,” he said.

    Amadou Sanogo, an army captain who led the coup, is reported to have pledged to reinstate the constitution and all state institutions before transferring power back to civilians via elections.

    That followed a threat by West African regional bloc ECOWAS to impose sanctions, including the potentially crippling closure of borders around the land-locked state.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world