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[TRUMPET FANFARE]
-It's just three weeks into France's war in Mali, and
French President Francois Hollande is touching down to
deliver his mission accomplished speech.
French troops had recaptured almost all of northern Mali
from the al-Qaeda-linked rebels who took control of
half the country last summer.
Now Hollande wants to start pulling French troops out from
April onwards.
If this was the end of the war, it would be a stunning
success for France.
But it isn't the end of the war.
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
-I traveled up to Gao with the French army in a grueling
journey across the desert.
-France only pulled its last combat troops out of
Afghanistan in November 2012 after a
bloody 11-year campaign.
The soldiers I was traveling with had only just come back
from Afghanistan.
After less than three months at home, they were already
fighting a new war, this time in Mali.
-[SPEAKING FRENCH]
-The rebels' greatest strategic asset is the sheer
size of northern Mali, a vast wilderness of desert and
mountain the same size as France itself.
-[SPEAKING FRENCH]
-Militarily, what kind of threats do you face?
-While the French have the technological superiority to
defeat the rebels in any stand up battle, the greatest risk
they face is the invisible threat of homemade bombs
called IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices.
It's an insurgent tactic now notorious from the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, where IEDs cause 2/3 of the
casualties amongst Western troops.
The logistics convoy found two IEDs along the road they're
traveling on.
They were newly laid.
-By placing homemade bombs along the roads, the rebels
can neutralize France's vast military superiority, tying up
millions of euros worth of troops and equipment with just
a few dollars worth of explosives.
-The most active insurgent group in Mali is now a MUJAO
centered on the northern city of Gao.
MUJAO have shown that they're capable of slipping into Gao
whenever they want to launch surprise attacks on the French
and Malian troops there.
One of their tactics is to hide bombs and weapons in the
city center to be picked up and used by jihadist sleeper
cells in sudden terrorist attacks.
I followed a group of local vigilantes, the Gao
Patrollers, as they searched for hidden explosives.
Their daily haul was staggering.
Rebel safe houses across the city were filled with stores
of homemade bombs and the components
needed to make them.
When you see the amount of explosives the rebels captured
from the Malian army, you realize the threat the French
are facing.
Many of the rebels' weapons were smuggled from Libya after
the fall of Gaddafi.
The jihadists' arsenal now includes missile launchers
like this one, capable of shooting down a French plane
or a civilian airliner.
These rockets were being stored in a nursery school
until the Malian army came to pick them up.
Many civilians begged for help from the outside world to
clear the city of these hidden stockpiles of explosives.
The French exit plan is to pull out as soon as possible,
leaving the war to the poorly trained Malian army.
But the more daring the attacks the Islamists pull
off, the harder it'll be for France to leave.
-Do you think you underestimated the rebels?
-Five French soldiers have been killed in Mali.
The most recent death was caused by an IED.
Roadside bombs have also killed six Malian soldiers
since the French recaptured northern Mali.
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
-President Hollande has pledged to start withdrawing
French troops from Mali from April 2013.
But without French troops on the ground, the Malian army
will face a tough battle against their committed
jihadist enemy.
[TRUMPET FANFARE]