In Mali, coalition heads for Timbuktu

French, Malian forces advance against Islamist extremists in the north

A Malian family’s taxi is searched at a checkpoint Sunday on the Gao road outside Sevare, Mali.
A Malian family’s taxi is searched at a checkpoint Sunday on the Gao road outside Sevare, Mali.

— French and Malian forces pushed toward the fabled desert town of Timbuktu on Sunday, as the two-week-long French mission gathered momentum against the Islamist extremists who have ruled the north for more than nine months.

So far, the French forces have met little resistance, though it remains unclear what battles may await them farther north. The Malian military blocked dozens of international journalists from trying to travel toward Timbuktu.

Lt. Col. Diarran Kone, a spokesman for Mali’s defense minister, declined to give details Sunday about the advance on Timbuktu, citing the security of an ongoing operation.

Timbuktu’s mayor, Ousmane Halle, is in the capital, Bamako, and he said he had no information about the remote town, where phone lines have been cut for days.

A convoy of about 15 vehicles transporting international journalists also was blocked Sunday afternoon in Konna, some 186 miles south of Timbuktu.

The French announced Saturday that they had seized the airport and a key bridge in Gao, one of the other northern provincial capitals under the grip of radical Islamists.

Meanwhile, French and African land forces also were making their way to Gao from neighboring Niger.

French and Malian forces were patrolling Gao on Sunday afternoon, searching for remnants of the Islamists and maintaining control of the bridge and airport, said Kone, the Mali military spokesman.

The French special forces, which had stormed in by land and air, had come under fire in Gao from “several terrorist elements” that were later “destroyed,” the French military said in a statement on its website Saturday.

However, a Gao official said late Saturday that coalition forces so far only controlled the airport, the bridge and surrounding neighborhoods.

And in Paris, a Defense Ministry official clarified that the city had not been fully liberated, and that the process of freeing Gao was continuing.

Both officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Gao, the largest city in northern Mali, was seized by a mixture of al-Qaida-linked Islamist fighters more than nine months ago along with the other northern provincial capitals of Kidal and Timbuktu.

The rebel group has close ties to Moktar Belmoktar, the Algerian who has long operated in Mali and who last week claimed responsibility for the terror attack on a BP-operated natural gas plant in Algeria.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said late Saturday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian the United States will aid the French military with aerial refueling missions.

U.S. aerial refueling planes would be a boost to air support for French ground forces as they enter vast areas of northern Mali, the size of Texas, that are controlled by al-Qaida linked extremists.

The U.S. was already helping France by transporting French troops and equipment to the West African nation. However, the U.S. government has said it cannot provide direct aid to the Malian military because the country’s democratically elected president was overthrown in a coup last March.

The Malian forces, however, are now expected to get more help than initially promised from neighboring nations.

Col. Shehu Usman Abdulkadir said the African force will be expanded from an anticipated 3,200 troops to some 5,700 - a figure that does not include the 2,200 soldiers promised by Chad.

The Mali conflict dominated the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is attending the two-day summit, where Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn took over from President Yayi Boni of Benin as chairman of the African Union.

“We are determined to do what we can to help the people of Mali in their time of need,” Ban said. “Humanitarian agencies are helping suffering civilians. The United Nations has also sent specialists on the military and political tracks. This is a moral imperative for all in the international community. I have presented to the Security Council my recommendation on the logistics support package for [the Mali force].” Information for this article was contributed by Rukmini Callimachi and Kirubel Tadesse of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/28/2013

Upcoming Events