BAMAKO: Malian troops swept Timbuktu for remaining Islamist fighters after a weekend battle that left seven dead and forced France to dispatch reinforcements and fighter jets to help Mali’s army.
By late Sunday relative calm had been restored, after Islamist militants used the chaos created by a suicide bombing on Saturday night to infiltrate the city and engage French and Malian troops in a day-long battle that left four more rebels, a soldier and a civilian dead.
