French, African troops move to retake Kidal, last major Mali town held by Islamic extremists

TIMBUKTU, Mali Troops from France and Chad moved into Kidal in an effort to secure the strategic north Malian city, a French official said Tuesday, as the international force put further pressure on the Islamic extremists to push them out of their last major bastion of control in the north.

Some 1,800 Chadian troops are holding Kidal city and an unspecified number of French troops were further securing the Kidal airport so that they can bring in more forces, a French military official said Tuesday. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to French military policy. Troops have had control of the airport for several days.

The French-led military intervention against advancing Islamic fighters started more than three weeks ago and has pushed quickly into Mali's north. France's government fears the region could become a haven for international terrorists.

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The French last week began a campaign of air strikes on Islamic rebel outposts around Kidal and Tessalit. French Mirage and Rafale fighter jets have flown 135 sorties since Thursday and targeted 25 sites, primarily fuel and logistics depots, the French Defense Ministry said. And France ramped up its presence in Mali to 4,000 troops as of Tuesday, the official said. That's about the same number as France had at the height of its 11-year military presence in Afghanistan.

While their forces took control of Kidal's airport some time ago, it's not clear why they did not take Kidal city with the same swiftness as they took Gao and Timbuktu.

There was speculaton that the pace of their advance was being constrained by the fact that the retreating rebels are holding western hostages, including eight who are French. Fears have mounted about their safety as the French intervention has moved closer to where several of them are thought to be held.

As French forces focus farther north, they are preparing to hand control of the fabled city of Timbuktu to African forces this week.

Some 3,800 forces from other African states are in Mali backing up the weak Malian army, the official said. But it is far from clear that the African forces are ready to take full responsibility against the Islamic extremists, who may strike the cities from their desert hideouts.

The spokesman for the Malian military in Timbuktu, Capt. Samba Coulibaly, said there is no reason for the population to fear the withdrawal of French troops.

"With the size of the force we have here right now, we can maintain security in the town of Timbuktu," he said. "The departure of the French soldiers does not scare us, especially since their air force will still be present both in Timbuktu and Sevare. They control this entire zone and can intervene within a matter of minutes in order to carry out air strikes as needed," he said.

In a sign of normalcy, the mayor's office of Timbuktu announced that they will open for the first time in 10 months on Wednesday, said the city's mayor Ousmane Halle.

Government officials will tackle "the most important needs first," he said. "Including garbage removal and issuing birth certificates for the children born since the Islamists took over."

"The city is now secure. There are ongoing patrols by French and Malian soldiers, and we no longer have any reason to fear an attack by the Islamists," he said.

Meanwhile, secular rebels from Mali's Tuareg group say they have arrested two Islamic extremists, including the man blamed for enforcing stoning deaths and amputations in Timbuktu.

A statement from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad on Monday said Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed of Ansar Dine and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed of the Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad, or MUJAO, were arrested Saturday near Mali's border with Algeria.

The NMLA launched a rebellion last year and seized most of northern Mali. They initially fought alongside Ansar Dine and MUJAO but they soon hijacked the Tuareg nationalist uprising.

The NMLA said the two men have been interrogated and information shared with French troops who are leading a military intervention in Mali. It said the men are in Kidal, Mali. The claims of these arrests, however, could not be immediately confirmed.