2 Mali towns see rebels ousted, flee

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

— French troops in armored personnel carriers rolled through the streets of Diabaly on Monday, winning praise from residents of the besieged town after Malian forces retook control of it with French help a week after militant Islamists invaded.

The Islamists also have deserted the town of Douentza, which they had held since September, according to a local official who said French and Malian forces arrived there on Monday as well.

The militants’ occupation of Diabaly marked their deepest encroachment into government-held territory, and Monday’s retaking of the town is a significant victory for the French-led intervention.

Diabaly, located about 320 miles north of Bamako, the capital, fell into rebel hands on Jan. 14. Residents said those who fled in the aftermath were forced to escape on foot through rice fields.

“We are truly really gratefulto the French who came in the nick of time,” said Gaoussou Kone, 34, the head of a local youth association. “Without the French, not only would there no longer be a Diabaly, there would soon no longer be a Mali. These people wanted to go all the way to Bamako.”

On Monday, all that remained of the Islamists were the charred shells of their vehicles destroyed by the French air strikes. Three vehicles were clustered in one location, the machine gun cannon of one still pointing skyward.

The cluster of rebel vehicles was directly in front of the home of an elderly man, Adama Nantoume, who said the French bombs started falling at around 11 p.m. the same day that the Islamists occupied Diabaly.

Farther north in Douentza,local town adviser Sali Maiga said Monday that French and Malian forces came into the town around 11 a.m. local time to find no sign of the Islamist rebels. The militants, who captured Douentza back in September, had deserted the town last week, Maiga said.

Islamists seized Diabaly just days after the French began their military operation on Jan. 11. The offensive is aimed at stopping the militant Islamists from encroaching toward the capital in Mali’s south from their strongholds in the vast, desert north where they have been amputating the hands of thieves and forcing women to wear veils for the past nine months.

On Monday, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi - who hails from his country’s oldest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood - criticized France’s military intervention in Mali.

Information for this article was contributed by Krista Larson, Jamey Keaten and Robbie Corey-Boulet of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/22/2013