![Is Now the Time to Move on Radical Islamists in Mali?](https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWJsYXplLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAxMy8wMS82MDB4Mzc1LmpwZyIsImV4cGlyZXNfYXQiOjE3MjQ5MjEzOTd9.J0jtvARKyPUgMzgCa6NxlgEiynP_3jHm4Qd5iRUSYek/image.jpg?width=980&quality=85)
French troops patrol on January 30, 2013 along the Niger river in the northern city of Gao, a key Islamist stronghold until it was retaken on January 26 by French and Malian troops in a major boost to the French-led offensive against the Al Qaeda-linked rebels, who have been holding Mali's vast desert north since last April. French troops on January 30 entered Kidal, the last Islamist bastion in Mali's north after a whirlwind Paris-led offensive, as France urged peace talks to douse ethnic tensions targeting Arabs and Tuaregs.
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