French-led troops are closing in on Timbuktu without meeting any resistance from Islamist militants. Source: AAP
FRENCH and Malian forces have taken control of Timbuktu airport and other access points to the historic Malian desert town.
The French military and Mali's presidency confirmed on Monday that forces were inside the key northern town and were conducting sweeps of the area.
French Colonel Thierry Burkhard told DPA French special forces were parachuted into strategic points overnight to prepare the way for Malian forces to recapture Timbuktu from Islamist rebels.
France aimed to avoid combat in the UNESCO World Heritage Site town "to avoid the senseless destruction of heritage", he said.
Timbuktu was for centuries a key centre of Islamic learning and has become a synonym for exotic remoteness.
The once cosmopolitan town was captured by extremist rebels 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".
In other action, the allied Franco-Malian forces seized the key town of Gao on Saturday and now appear in control of the area connecting that town, the most populous in the north, to Timbuktu.
The last urban rebel stronghold of Kidal, near the border with Algeria, was targeted in airstrikes at the weekend.
France responded over two weeks ago to a call from the Malian government for help in fighting the rebels, who had begun moving south towards the capital, Bamako.
Mali's crisis was started by a Tuareg rebellion for independence in January last year which overwhelmed the weak army and prompted a coup in March.
Amid a political vacuum, the Tuareg desert nomads and Islamists seized the north in days. But the extremists had no interest in the Tuareg desire for independence and quickly sidelined their allies to install sharia law.
Defence chiefs from the West African regional grouping ECOWAS agreed on Saturday to boost their troop pledges for Mali to 5700. Chad, which is not a member of the 15-nation bloc, has promised a further 2000 soldiers.
France said on Sunday it had now deployed 2900 troops and 2700 African soldiers were on the ground in Mali and Niger, but French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault appealed for more aid.
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