French troops to quit Timbuktu this week

TIMBUKTU, Mali: French airstrikes targeted the fuel depots and desert hideouts of extremists in northern Mali overnight yesterday, as a military spokeswoman said that French forces plan to hand control of Timbuktu to the Malian army this week.
After taking control of the key cities of northern Mali, forcing the rebels to retreat into the desert, the French military intervention is turning away from the cities and targeting the fighters’ remote outposts to prevent them bases from being used as Saharan launch pads for international terrorism.
The French plan to leave the city of Timbuktu on Thursday, Feb. 7, a spokeswoman for the armed forces in the city said yesterday. French soldiers took the city last week after 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 spokeswoman, who only provided her first name in keeping with French military protocol. She said that the force in Timbuktu will be replaced by a small contingent of French soldiers, though she declined to say when they would arrive.
Yesterday, French troops in armored personnel carriers were still patrolling Timbuktu.
In the city’s military camps, newly arrived Malian troops were cleaning their weapons yesterday and holding meetings to prepare to take over the security of the city once the French leave.
There are signs that the rebels are beginning a guerrilla-type of conflict from their desert retreats as land mine explosions have killed four Malian soldiers and two civilians throughout the northern region in recent days.
The two civilians died in an explosion from a land mine, or an improvised explosive device, 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 yesterday.