Posted on 01/28/2013 4:58:16 AM PST by Pan_Yan
French-led troops surrounded Mali's fabled desert city of Timbuktu on Monday after seizing its airport in a lightning advance against Islamists who have been driven from key northern strongholds.
French paratroopers swooped in to block any fleeing Islamists while ground troops coming from the south seized the airport in the ancient city which has been one of the bastions of the extremists who have controlled the north for 10 months.
"We control the airport at Timbuktu," a senior officer with the Malian army told AFP. "We did not encounter any resistance."
French army spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard told AFP the troops, backed up by helicopters, had seized control of the so-called Niger Loop the area alongside the curve of the Niger River flowing between Timbuktu and Gao in less than 48 hours.
A fabled caravan town on the edge of the Sahara desert, Timbuktu was for centuries a key centre of Islamic learning and has become a byword for exotic remoteness in the Western imagination.
The once cosmopolitan town became a dusty outpost for the extremists who forced women to wear veils, whipped and stoned those who violated their version of strict Islamic law, and destroyed ancient Muslim shrines they considered "idolatrous".
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Western governments pour in aid money.
Western military leaves so they don't look like occupiers.
Poorly trained and corrupt local military can't hold territory.
Islamists walk back into town and enjoy new utilities installed by western countries.
The only solution to islamists is to kill them all, including their wives, children, camels and anything else infected with islam.
After all, that’s how they look at us.
La Devise de Legion Etrangere, Marche ou Creve!
Non, vous venez de faire appel à une frappe aérienne et de laisser les autres mourir salauds. :o)
Chop islam en bois déchiqueteuses.
I haven’t seen any reports of the French Foreign Legion being involved in Mali but the idea of the FFL marching into Timbuktu is the kind of stuff that makes historians all tingly.
At least they parachuted in behind the lines, so this band of animals is trapped. But overall, yes, they are very hard to defeat - but on the good side, they are appreciated when they are liberating African towns towards the South, so they will get help. Up in the North, it’s anyone’s guess as to which side the civilians are on.
The soldier wearing the Call of Duty mask was reported to be a Legionnaire.
The History Channel could get at least 10 episodes out of it.
"There was no one there to accept our surrender."
(just kidding)
Why are you linking the telegraph? It’s a pay site now after a free articles a month.
I saw the headline while browsing the news section of a search engine. I clicked on it and it opened fine. I thought it worthwhile so I posted it. It's not on the copyright banned list. I'm sorry if it won't open for you but I'm not sure there is any way I could have known that in advance.
Hmm, many Telegraph articles are posted here, and I have never had a problem with any of them!?
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