re: #1 Dark_Falcon

Let them hole up in fortresses. We’ve got bunker-busters that’ll crack anything they build open like an egg. They want to mass their forces in a place where we can kill them? So much the better, as we’ll kill ‘em quicker.

Have you seen how big N. Mali is?

In any case, this is a classic case of blowback from the west’s overthrowing a tamed Qaddafi via armed force. They resulting war led to arms and lawlessness moving into Mali as the Qadaffi regime armed Tuareg rebels there who then joined up with al-Qaeda (and were kicked aside).