TIMBUKTU, Mali — In a new phase of the Mali conflict, French airstrikes targeted the fuel depots and desert hideouts of Islamic extremists in northern Mali overnight Monday, as French forces planned to hand control of Timbuktu to the Malian army this week.
After taking control of the key cities of northern Mali, forcing the Islamic rebels to retreat into the desert, the French military intervention is turning away from the cities and targeting the fighters’ remote outposts to prevent the bases from being used as Saharan launch pads for international terrorism.
The French plan to leave the city of Timbuktu on Thursday, a spokesman for the armed forces in the city said Monday. French soldiers took the city last week after Islamic extremists withdrew. Now the French military said it intends to move out of Timbuktu in order to push farther northeast to the strategic city of Gao.
“The 600 soldiers currently based in Timbuktu will be heading toward Gao in order to pursue their mission,” said Capt. Nadia, the spokesman, who only provided her first name in keeping with French military protocol. She said the force in Timbuktu will be replaced by a small contingent of French soldiers, though she declined to say when they would arrive.
On Monday, French troops in armored personnel carriers were still patrolling Timbuktu. In the city’s military camps, newly arrived Malian troops were cleaning their weapons and meeting to prepare to take over the security of the city once the French leave.
There are signs that the Islamic rebels are beginning a guerrilla-type of conflict from their desert retreats as landmine explosions have killed four Malian soldiers and two civilians throughout the northern region in recent days.
The two civilians died in a land-mine explosion on the road in northeastern Mali that links Kidal, Anefis and North Darane, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement Monday.
Four soldiers were killed last week by a land mine in the northeast area near Gossi. The French reported that two other land mines have been found in that vicinity, and early Monday they detonated one of the mines.
Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, Mali’s foreign minister, is urging international cooperation to root out the extremists who littered the north of his country with land mines and who pose “a global threat.” He also hinted that Malians aren’t ready for French troops to leave.
“Those who planted those mines there are barbarians,” Coulibaly said. “They are criminals, because when you plant a mine you jeopardize the life of a population for years.”
He said that Mali’s landmine problem shows “the large extent to which we need help.”
French airstrikes targeted the Islamic extremists’ desert bases and fuel depots in northern Mali overnight.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France-Inter radio Monday that the strikes hit the Kidal region, near the border with Algeria, for the second night in a row. The extremists “cannot stay there a long time unless they have ways to get new supplies,” he said.
French Mirage and Rafale planes also pounded extremist training camps as well as arms and fuel depots from Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday, north of the town of Kidal and in the Tessalit region.
The French intervened in Mali on Jan. 11 to stem the advance of the al-Qaida-linked fighters, who had taken over the country’s north, enforced harsh rules on the population and plotted a terrorist attack in neighboring Algeria. The French troops arrived when the Islamic extremists threatened to move farther south.
After pushing extremists out of key northern cities, France is now pushing to hand over control of those sites to African forces from a United Nations-authorized force.
“In the cities that we are holding, we want to be quickly replaced by the African forces,” Fabius said Monday.
In Paris, United States Vice President Joe Biden praised the French intervention in Mali while meeting with French President Francois Hollande.
“We applaud your decisiveness and, I might add, the capability of France’s military forces,” said Biden. “Your decisive action was not only in the interest of France but of the United States and everyone. We agreed on the need to, quickly as possible, establish an African-led mission to Mali and as quickly as prudent transition that mission to the UN.”
Also in Paris, Coulibaly said the Malian army will be fighting alongside French and African troops against the Islamic radicals.
“We must continue pushing them (the extremists) north and then over there, there is a real need for a strong military force, air force, to destroy all the implementations around the mountains,” Coulibaly said. “So ultimately, the real objective is to destroy all terrorist presence in Northern Mali.” Information for this article was contributed by Angela Charlton, Jeffrey Schaeffer and Greg Keller of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/05/2013