Foreign troops move on strategic Malian city

Combined forces from France and Chad advance on Kidal as the countries boost their presence in Mali and the rebels are beaten back farther from the territory.

Mali's foreign affairs Minister Tieman Coulibaly, right, talks with Burkina Faso's foreign minister Djibril Bassole before a ministerial meeting on the situation in his country.

TIMBUKTU, Mali // Troops from France and Chad have moved into Kidal in an effort to secure the crucial north Malian city, a French official said yesterday, 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 are further securing the Kidal airport so that they can bring in more forces, a French military official said.

The official said France had ramped up its presence in Mali to 4,000 troops as of yesterday. That is about the same number as France had at the height of its 11-year military presence in Afghanistan.

French forces began a campaign of air strikes on Islamic rebel outposts around Kidal and Tessalit last week. French Mirage and Rafale fighter jets have flown 135 sorties since Thursday and targeted 25 sites, primarily fuel and logistics depots, the French defence ministry said.

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

There was speculation 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 city of Timbuktu to African forces this week.

Some 3,800 soldiers from other African states are in Mali backing up the weak Malian army, the official said.

It is not clear whether 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 was 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."

In a sign of normality, the mayor's office of Timbuktu will open today for the first time in 10 months, the city's mayor, Ousmane Halle, said.

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.

However, the conflict may go on for a long time, warned a high-ranking Algerian security official, based in the vast Sahara bordering Mali.

"The war risks being long and the terrorist groups could use the same strategy used by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan against US forces, notably suicide attacks and surprise attacks targeting French and Malian troops," said the security officer. "While the French and Malian forces easily chased the terrorists out of the Malian cities like Gao and Kidal, it will be more difficult for them to dislodge them from the mountains in the north of Mali."

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 said Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed of Ansar Edine 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 Edine and MUJAO, but they soon hijacked the Tuareg nationalist uprising.

The NMLA said the two men had been interrogated and the information shared with French troops who are leading a military intervention in Mali. It said the men were in Kidal. Their claims could not be immediately confirmed.