A Malian military source told Reuters the French and Malian forces reached "the gates of Timbuktu" late on Saturday without meeting resistance from the Islamist insurgents who had held the town since last year.
The advancing troops were working on securing the town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and mud-brick homes, ready to flush out any Islamist fighters who might still be hiding among the population.
"Timbuktu is delicate, you can't just go in like that," the source, who asked not to be named, said.
On Saturday, the French-Malian offensive recaptured Gao, which along with Timbuktu was one of three major northern towns occupied last year by Tuareg and Islamist rebels who included fighters from al Qaeda's North Africa wing AQIM.
The third town, Kidal, remains in rebel hands.
The United States and Europe are backing the U.N.-mandated Mali operation as a counterstrike against the threat of radical Islamist jihadists using the West African state's inhospitable Sahara desert as a launching pad for international attacks.
One Timbuktu resident now outside the town said a friend inside had sent him SMS messages saying he had seen government troops on the streets, but gave no more details.
Fighters from the Islamist alliance in north Mali, which groups AQIM with Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA, had destroyed ancient shrines sacred to moderate Sufi Moslems in Timbuktu, provoking international outrage.
They had also imposed severe sharia, Islamic law, including amputations for thieves and stoning of adulterers.
GAO MAYOR BACK IN OFFICE
Malian government
control was restored in Gao on Saturday, after French special forces
backed by warplanes and helicopters seized the town's airport and a key
bridge. Around a dozen "terrorists" were killed in the assault, while
French forces suffered no losses or injuries, France's defense ministry
said.
The Islamists seemed to be pulling back further north
into the trackless desert wastes and mountain fastnesses of the Sahara,
from where some military experts fear they could carry on a hit-and-run
guerrilla war against the government.Officials said the mayor of Gao, Sadou Diallo, who had taken refuge in Bamako during the Islamist occupation, had been reinstalled at the head of the local administration while French, Malian, Chadian and Nigerien troops secured the town and the surrounding area.
As the French and Malian troops push into northern Mali, African troops
from a continental intervention force expected to number 7,700 are
being flown into the country, despite delays due to logistical problems
and the lack of airlift capacity.
The robust military
action by France over the past two weeks in its former Sahel colony has
left African leaders embarrassed about the continent's inability to
quickly field its own force to restore the territorial integrity of an
African state.
At an African Union
summit in Addis Ababa, outgoing AU chairman Thomas Boni Yayi, president
of Benin, criticized Africa's slow response to the Isla mist insurgency
in Mali, and welcomed international support for the French-led
operation.
"How could it be
that when faced with a danger that threatens its very foundations,
Africa, although it had the means to defend itself, continued to wait,"
Yayi told African leaders on Sunday after handing over the AU chair to
Ethiopia.
TWO-PRONGED OFFENSIVE
France sent
warplanes and 2,500 troops to Mali, formerly French Sudan, after its
government appealed to Paris for help when Isla mist rebel columns early
in January launched an offensive towards the southern capital Bamako.
The rebels seized several towns, since recaptured by the French.
Around 1,900
African troops, including Chadian, have been deployed to Mali so far as
part of the planned U.S.-based African intervention force, known as
AFISMA.
Bur kina Fatso,
Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Niger and Chad are providing troops while
Burundi and other African nations have pledged to contribute.
While the French
and Malians thrust northeast in a two-pronged offensive through Goa and
Timbuktu, Chadian and local forces in neighboring Niger are preparing a
flanking thrust against the Isla mists coming up from the south.
Washington and
European governments, while providing airlift and intelligence support
to the anti-militant offensive in Mali, are not planning to send in any
combat troops.
The AU is expected
to seek hundreds of millions of dollars in logistical support and
funding for the AFISMA force at a conference of donors for the Mali
operation to be held in Addis Ababa on January 29.
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