"French and Malian troops were on Sunday restoring government control over the fabled Saharan trading town of Timbuktu, the latest gain in a fast-moving French-led offensive against al Qaeda-allied fighters occupying northern Mali. The Islamist militant rebels have pulled back northwards to avoid relentless French air strikes that have destroyed their bases, vehicles and weapons, allowing French and Malian troops to advance rapidly with air support and armored vehicles. A Malian military source told Reuters the French and Malian forces reached "the gates of Timbuktu" late on Saturday without meeting resistance from the Islamist insurgents who had held the town since last year. The advancing troops were working on securing the town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and mud-brick homes, ready to flush out any Islamist fighters who might still be hiding among the population. " Reuters
This is an example of what professional and skilled troops can do against guerrilas in country as "open" in topography as Mali, Niger, Chad or Libya. The populations in these African countries are small, and the towns are few. This greatly simplifies the task of clearing the handful of towns in the desert. The same sort of speedy result would have been possible against Qathafy's forces if the opposition to him had been other than undisciplined and untrained guerrilas themselves.
It is nevertheless true that the post offensive situation in Mali or any of these places will require a continuing French presence at some level for a long time to prevent the return of the Islamist guerrillas. The Malian Army is no more capable of defeating insurgencies on their territory than are the armies of Iraq or Afghanistan. pl