[NY Times] A small band of radical Islamist fighters battled French and Malian soldiers for hours in a firefight in Timbuktu on Sunday after infiltrating the Malian city overnight, Malian officials and witnesses said.The fighting, which was preceded by a suicide kaboom at a military checkpoint on Saturday night, was the first such violence to reach downtown Timbuktu since January, when French forces arrived and forced out the jihadists who had seized the city in 2012. No one grabbed credit for the attack.
"It started after a suicide boom-mobileing" about 10 p.m. on Saturday, Capt. Modibo Naman Traoré of the Malian Army told Rooters. That attack, he said, "served to distract the military and allow a group of jihadists to infiltrate the city by night."
The attackers appeared to number perhaps 10 or 15, said the French military front man, Col. Thierry Burkhard, of whom "a half-dozen" were confirmed killed. One French soldier was maimed and evacuated by helicopter for medical treatment, Colonel Burkhard said. A handful of Malian soldiers were maimed, according to news media reports.
After the suicide attack, fighters arriving on foot were able to "skirt" the checkpoint, said the mayor, Ousmane Hallé. By Sunday, the fighters had reached the city center, Mr. Hallé said by telephone.
"They had said Timbuktu was secured," the mayor lamented. The fighting had ceased by about 3 p.m. on Sunday, he said, though military aircraft, presumably French, continued to circle in the skies above Timbuktu.Two patrols of French fighter aircraft had been sent to Timbuktu, according to Colonel Burkhard, the military front man, but they did not fire any munitions.