TIMBUKTU

French-led troops in Mali have entered the historic city of Timbuktu :

after capturing the airport from militant Islamists...

French troops seem to have been very successful in retaking the major towns that had been occupied by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda for months.

Gao was reconquered over the weekend and Timbuktu should be falling within hours. Kidal will be next.

But this rapid advance has mainly been made possible by the fact that most rebel fighters had left their positions in the few days preceding the French-led operations.

Islamist combatants melted away with all their vehicles and weapons into desert hideouts.

Hunting them down in this vast region they know better than any army will be much harder. 

The French are hoping for a quick deployment of thousands more African forces but

without the experience of the terrain and the equipment, these troops will achieve nothing.

The Russian Bear LOST in Afghanistan ....

Will this be the French Waterloo ??  .....hhhhmmmm

I hope so!

Gao and Timbuktu...brilliant names and locations in human history

• Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th Centuries

• 700,000 manuscripts survive in public libraries and private collections

• Books on religion, law, literature and science

      They played a major role in spreading Islam in West Africa; the oldest dates from 1329