Malian and French troops have captured the airport of Timbuktu 2801131

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French Armed Forces Operation Serval in Mali

 
 
Monday, January 28, 2013, 08:59 AM
 
Malian and French troops have captured the airport of Timbuktu.
Malian and French soldiers have captured Timbuktu airport, Sunday, January 27, 2013, as they continue to retake territory from al-Qaeda-linked rebels in northern Mali. A Malian military source said the French and Malian troops had met no resistance up to the gates of Timbuktu and controlled the airport. Positions around the airport Gao were reinforced by an armored unit of the 21st RIMa and African soldiers from Niger and Chad.
     
Malian and French soldiers have captured Timbuktu airport, Sunday, January 27, 2013, as they continue to retake territory from al-Qaeda-linked rebels in northern Mali. A Malian military source said the French and Malian troops had met no resistance up to the gates of Timbuktu and controlled the airport. Positions around the airport Gao were reinforced by an armored unit of the 21st RIMa and African soldiers from Niger and Chad
Positions around the airport Gao were reinforced by an armored unit of the 21st RIMa and African soldiers from Niger and Chad.
     

Currently, the Malian armed forces have taken control of Gao. The mayor, who was forced to leave when the terrorists arrived in March 2012, was also able to return to Gao. During the fighting to take the airport and a bridge over the River Niger, several terrorist groups have been destroyed by French and Malian soldiers or chased to the north.

The air operations since yesterday provide direct support to military operations in Gao and on the west. Nearly twenty missions were carried out in the past 36 hours in the regions of Timbuktu and Gao by the fighter aircraft of the French Air Force.

Sunday, January 27, 2013, French fighter aircraft bombed Islamist position in Kidal, Malian officials say.

Some 3,700 French troops are engaged in Operation Serval, 2,900 of them on Malian soil. African contingents of MISMA (International Mission of Support in Mali) and Chad totaling more than 2,700 soldiers.