February 4, 2013

French President François Hollande paid a triumphant visit on February 2 to the fabled city of Timbuktu, where he received a rapturous welcome from crowds chanting “Vive la France!” and waving banners stating “Papa François, the mysterious city welcomes you.” French and Malian forces drove Islamist jihadists out of the city on January 27 and into the vast desert to the north. (Mali was once a French colony.) However, residents of Timbuktu worry that the rebels will return as soon as the French withdraw their troops. “These Islamists, they have not been defeated,” Moustapha Ben Essayouti, a member of a locally prominent family, told French correspondents. “Hardly any of them have been killed. . . . If France leaves, they will come back.” While praising French and Malian troops for the “exceptional mission,” President Hollande acknowledged that “the fight is not over.” In a later speech in Mali’s capital, Bamako, he declared, “We will be with you to the end, all the way to northern Mali.”

President Hollande’s government announced on January 12 that it was sending troops into Mali to help wrest the nation back from Islamic jihadist expansion. Some 1,900 African troops–including soldiers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Nigeria,  Senegal, and Togo–were deployed to Mali as part of a United Nations-backed African intervention force to drive the insurgents northward.

Franch and Malian troops have driven Islamist rebels out of Timbuktu and into the desert to the north. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

Islamist rebels gained control of much of the north in 2012 after a military coup in Mali’s capital, Bamako, created a power vacuum. At the core of the Islamist insurgency are the remnants of a now-defunct Algerian rebel group that was largely driven out of Algeria and into the unpoliced desert land in northern Mali sometime after the Algerian civil war was settled in 1999. A loose alliance of Algerian and Mauritanian  fighters, they are believed to be connected to an al-Qa’ida offshoot known as “al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb.” (Maghreb refers to northern Africa west of Egypt). The group aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state under Shar’iah law. The group operates in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and other ungoverned areas of the Sahel region.

Additional World Book articles:

• Algeria 1991 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1992 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1999 (a Back in Time article)

January 31, 2013

Scholars and historians around the world expressed relief at the news that the overwhelming majority of ancient manuscripts threatened by the Islamist militants occupying the Malian city Timbuktu were not destroyed as the militants were driven from the city by French and Malian troops earlier this week. The manuscripts, some of which date back to the 1100′s, were written when Timbuktu was one of the richest commercial cities of Africa and a center of Islamic learning, chiefly from the 1300′s to the 1600′s. Several thousand of the 300,000 manuscripts were apparently stolen or burned by the fleeing militants, who torched a government-funded institute for the study and conservation of the manuscripts. However, the vast majority of the manuscripts had been stored in another building or had been spirited from the institute, according to a report today on the website time.com. It is likely that they were moved for safekeeping when the rebels began vandalizing historic sites in the fabled city. The insurgents are known for their extreme cruelty and barbarity. After taking control of Timbuktu, they destroyed a number of historic and religious landmarks, claiming the landmarks were idolatrous.

The government of French President François Hollande announced on January 12 that it was sending troops into Mali to help wrest the nation back from Islamic jihadist expansion. (Mali was once a French colony.) Some 1,900 African troops–including soldiers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo–are being deployed to Mali as part of a United Nations-backed African intervention force to drive the insurgents northwards into the desert and mountains. The United Kingdom is supplying planes to transport troops and material.

The pyramid-shaped Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, became an important Islamic house of worship in the Mali Empire. During the 1200's, the Mali Empire replaced the Ghana Empire as the most powerful state in western Africa. The Mali Empire flourished until the 1400's. (c) Aldona Sabalis, Photo Researchers

Islamist rebels gained control of much of the north in 2012 after a military coup in Mali’s capital, Bamako, created a power vacuum. At the core of the Islamist insurgency are the remnants of a now-defunct Algerian rebel group that was largely driven out of Algeria and into the unpoliced desert land in northern Mali sometime after the Algerian civil war was settled in 1999. A loose alliance of Algerian and Mauritanian fighters, they are believed to be connected to an al-Qa’ida offshoot known as “al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb.” (Maghreb refers to northern Africa west of Egypt). The group aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state under Shar’iah law. The group operates in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and other ungoverned areas of the Sahel region.

Additional World Book articles:

• Algeria 1991 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1992 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1999 (a Back in Time article)

January 16, 2013

French troops fighting alongside Malian troops are engaged in their first ground battle with rebel forces in Mali. According to British sources in Mali, French troops are fighting the Islamist rebels in street battles in the town of Diabaly, which the rebels seized on January 14. Diabaly is 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the capital, Bamako, and the French and Malian forces are attempting to halt the insurgents’ advance on the capital. The rebels gained control of much of the north in 2012 after a military coup in Bamako created a power vacuum. Mali was once a French colony.

Islamist rebels who control the northern half of Mali are advancing south on the capital, Bamako. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc)

The government of French President François Hollande announced on January 12 that it was sending troops into Mali to help wrest the nation back from Islamic jihadist expansion. Mali’s neighbors, including Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria, have also agreed to send soldiers into Mali, and the United Kingdom is supplying planes to transport them.

Despite massive aerial bombardment by French air force jets, the insurgents have continued to advance south. French military officers acknowledge that the rebels are better armed than expected, with AK-47′s, rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy machine guns mounted on vehicles. American intelligence agents have traced at least some of their ammunition to Iran.

A number of historic structures, similar to the pyramid-shaped Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, have been damaged or destroyed by Malian rebels, who claim the structures are idolatrous. ((c) Aldona Sabalis, Photo Researchers)

At the core of the Islamist insurgency are the remnants of a now-defunct Algerian rebel group that was largely driven out of Algeria and into the unpoliced desert land in northern Mali sometime after the Algerian civil war was settled in 1999. A loose alliance of Algerian and Mauritanian fighters, they are believed to be connected to an al-Qa’ida offshoot known as “al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb” (Aqim). Aqim aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state under Shar’iah law. The group operates in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and other ungoverned areas of the Sahel region. The insurgents are known for their extreme cruelty and barbarity. Since seizing the northern half of Mali, they have destroyed a number of historic and religious landmarks in Timbuktu, claiming the landmarks are idolatrous. Any behavior deemed an affront to their interpretation of Islam has been zealously punished. They also actively recruit children for armed conflict.

Additional World Book articles:

• Algeria 1991 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1992 (a Back in Time article)
• Algeria 1999 (a Back in Time article)

September 27, 2012

United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced yesterday that U.S. intelligence officials have uncovered an explicit link between al-Qa`ida terrorist groups in North Africa and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. That attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the ambassador, Chris Stevens.

Secretary Clinton’s announcement was made at a special United Nations meeting on the current crisis in northern Mali, which has been overrun by Islamic extremists. According to the secretary, the extremists are allowing al-Qa’ida cells to operate out of Mali. “Now, with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions,” she informed world leaders attending the meeting. “And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi.” Intelligence officials have reported that al-Qa’ida cells are also operating in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and possibly Pakistan.

Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state of the United States in 2009. Prior to taking the post, Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, had represented New York in the United States Senate. (U.S. Department of State)

Sept. 11, 2012, was the 11th anniversary of the al-Qa’ida terrorist attacks on the United States that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. At that time,  al-Qa`ida was an Afghanistan-based terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden. After hijacking four commercial airliners, the terrorists flew two jets into the World Trade Center twin towers, which subsequently collapsed. Terrorists crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon, the U.S. armed services headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The attackers in the fourth airliner were overtaken by passengers, preventing them from crashing the plane into another Washington, D.C., landmark, possibly the White House or Capitol. The jet went down in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard. The September 11 terrorist attacks prompted the administration of President George W. Bush to send forces into Afghanistan in October 2001 to clean out terrorist camps. That war continues in 2012.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan War
• Arab Spring
• National September 11 Memorial and Museum
• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• New York City 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Washington, D.C. 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)
• Passport to Reform: The INS and Homeland Security (a special report)