French seize control of 2 key Mali towns
BY RUKMINI CALLIMACHI & BABA AHMED Associated Press
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
1/22/13 at 6:19 AM
French troops in armored personnel carriers rolled through the streets of Diabaly on Monday, winning praise from residents of this besieged town after Malian forces retook control of it with French help a week after radical Islamists invaded.
The Islamists also have deserted the town of Douentza, which they had held since September, according to a local official who said French and Malian forces arrived there on Monday as well.
The militants' occupation of Diabaly marked their deepest encroachment into government-held territory, and Monday's retaking of the town is a significant victory for the French-led intervention.
Diabaly, located about 320 miles north of Bamako, the capital, fell into rebel hands on Jan. 14. Residents said those who fled in the aftermath were forced to escape on foot through rice fields.
"We are truly really grateful to the French who came in the nick of time," said Gaoussou Kone, 34, the head of a local youth association.
"Without the French, not only would there no longer be a Diabaly, there would soon no longer be a Mali. These people wanted to go all the way to Bamako."
On Monday, all that remained of the Islamists were the charred shells of their vehicles destroyed by the French air strikes. Three of them were clustered in one location, the machine gun cannon of one still pointing skyward.
Islamists had seized Diabaly just days after the French began their military operation on Jan. 11. The offensive is aimed at stopping the radical Islamists from encroaching toward the capital in Mali's south from their strongholds in the vast, desert north where they have been amputating the hands of thieves and forcing women to wear veils for the last nine months.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi - who hails from his country's oldest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood - opposed France's military intervention in Mali.
Speaking at the opening of an Arab economic summit in Saudi Arabia, he said France's actions would create a "new conflict hotspot" separating the Arab north of Mali from its African neighbors to the south.
He said he would have preferred to see a "peaceful and developmental" intervention.
On Monday, about 200 French infantrymen supported by six combat helicopters and reconnaissance planes made their way to Diabaly.
Original Print Headline: French seize control of 2 key Mali towns
Associated Images:
A French soldier secures a perimeter Monday on the outskirts of Diabaly, Mali, some 320 miles north of the capital Bamako. French and Malian troops were in the city, the capture of which by radical Islamists on Jan. 14 prompted the French military intervention. JEROME DELAY / Associated Press
A Malian soldier walks through a military camp used by radical Islamists and bombarded by French warplanes in Diabaly, Mali, on Monday. JEROME DELAY / Associated Press
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