SEVARE, Mali — French and Malian military forces closed in on the fabled city of Timbuktu on Monday with armed Islamist extremists having fled into the desert after setting a library holding ancient manuscripts ablaze.
The al-Qaida-linked militants occupied Timbuktu for almost 10 months, imposing the strict Islamic version of Shariah, or religious law, across northern Mali while carrying out amputations and public executions.
Graphic
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“In the heart of people from northern Mali, it’s a relief — freedom finally,” said Cheick Sormoye, a Timbuktu resident who fled to Bamako, the capital.
The French said Mali’s weak military must finish the job of securing Timbuktu. But they have generally fared poorly in combat, often retreating in panic in the face of well-armed and battle-hardened Islamists.
The French-led military operation against the Islamists, who seized the northern half of Mali last year, began 17 days ago when the insurgents encroached further toward the south.
It has scored several successes, but hard questions remain about how the Mali government will hold the cities that have been wrested from the Islamists, and whether there is the will and the ability to chase them into the Sahara which is home to many of these desert fighters.
On Saturday, French forces secured key installations in the northeastern town of Gao. Then overnight Sunday troops secured the Timbuktu airport without firing a shot.
Ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of Timbuktu’s airport and the roads leading to the town in an overnight operation, a French military official said Monday.
“There was an operation on Timbuktu last night that allowed us to control access to the town,” French Col. Thierry Burkhard, the chief military spokesman in Paris, said Monday. “It’s up to Malian forces to retake the town.”
The mayor of Timbuktu said Monday that the Islamists had torched his office as well as the Ahmed Baba institute — a library rich with historical documents — in an act of retaliation before they fled late last week from the city of mud-walled buildings.
“It’s truly alarming that this has happened,” Mayor Ousmane Halle told The Associated Press by telephone from Bamako. “They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people.”
He said he didn’t have further details as communications to the city have been cut off.
Timbuktu, long a hub of Islamic learning, has been home to some 20,000 manuscripts, some dating back as far as the 12th century. It was not immediately known how many of the irreplaceable manuscripts had been destroyed.
Owners have succeeded in removing some of the manuscripts from Timbuktu to save them, while others have been carefully hidden away from the Islamists who seized Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal in the wake of a coup last March.
The Islamists, though, still maintain control of the provincial capital of Kidal further north and are believed to have a complex system of desert bases including self-constructed caves to which they can escape, only to launch attacks at a later date.
The al-Qaida-linked militants occupied Timbuktu for almost 10 months, imposing the strict Islamic version of Shariah, or religious law, across northern Mali while carrying out amputations and public executions.
Graphic
TIMELINE: A look at the events leading up to the intervention in Mali.
Related articles on Mali
Sudarsan Raghavan Advance comes a week after the joint force retook the Islamist-held town of Diabaly, in central Mali.
Sudarsan Raghavan and Edward Cody Two weeks into their intervention, scene on ground is more complicated than it had appeared at the outset.
Max Fisher Yes, the first question is, "What is Mali?"
Sudarsan Raghavan Forced marriages, amputations and other abuses are on the rise in the northern region seized this spring.
Sudarsan Raghavan Northern Mali, one of the richest reservoirs of Music in Africa, grows silent as musicians flee the hard-line edicts of Islamists now in power.
“In the heart of people from northern Mali, it’s a relief — freedom finally,” said Cheick Sormoye, a Timbuktu resident who fled to Bamako, the capital.
The French said Mali’s weak military must finish the job of securing Timbuktu. But they have generally fared poorly in combat, often retreating in panic in the face of well-armed and battle-hardened Islamists.
The French-led military operation against the Islamists, who seized the northern half of Mali last year, began 17 days ago when the insurgents encroached further toward the south.
It has scored several successes, but hard questions remain about how the Mali government will hold the cities that have been wrested from the Islamists, and whether there is the will and the ability to chase them into the Sahara which is home to many of these desert fighters.
On Saturday, French forces secured key installations in the northeastern town of Gao. Then overnight Sunday troops secured the Timbuktu airport without firing a shot.
Ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of Timbuktu’s airport and the roads leading to the town in an overnight operation, a French military official said Monday.
“There was an operation on Timbuktu last night that allowed us to control access to the town,” French Col. Thierry Burkhard, the chief military spokesman in Paris, said Monday. “It’s up to Malian forces to retake the town.”
The mayor of Timbuktu said Monday that the Islamists had torched his office as well as the Ahmed Baba institute — a library rich with historical documents — in an act of retaliation before they fled late last week from the city of mud-walled buildings.
“It’s truly alarming that this has happened,” Mayor Ousmane Halle told The Associated Press by telephone from Bamako. “They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people.”
He said he didn’t have further details as communications to the city have been cut off.
Timbuktu, long a hub of Islamic learning, has been home to some 20,000 manuscripts, some dating back as far as the 12th century. It was not immediately known how many of the irreplaceable manuscripts had been destroyed.
Owners have succeeded in removing some of the manuscripts from Timbuktu to save them, while others have been carefully hidden away from the Islamists who seized Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal in the wake of a coup last March.
The Islamists, though, still maintain control of the provincial capital of Kidal further north and are believed to have a complex system of desert bases including self-constructed caves to which they can escape, only to launch attacks at a later date.