Mali

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This photo taken March 8, 2013, and released on March 14 by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) shows a French air force helicopter patrolling over the Adrar region in northern Mali. France, Mali's former colonial ruler, started the campaign in January, fearing the region was becoming a terrorist haven. But the fighting has grown tougher and French forces aren't ready to pull out yet. (Associated Press/ECPAD)

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Children attend a class in a madrassa in Gao, northern Mali, February 18.

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In this Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, photo, a young vendor waits for clients alongside woven reed mats of the type purchased by fleeing Islamists, apparently to camouflage their vehicles, in Timbuktu, Mali. (AP Photo/Rukmini Callimachi)

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French troops talk with Malian soldiers outside Bourem, in northern Mali, on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Pascal Guyot, Pool)

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**FILE** Neighborhood resident Mohamed Alassane ducks under a wire Feb. 6, 2013, to enter the Ministry of Finance's Regional Audit Department in Timbuktu, Mali, a site used by al Qaeda-linked Islamists for more than a year. (Associated Press)

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Malian soldiers man a checkpoint at the northern entrance to Gao, Mali, on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. French soldiers on Wednesday recovered an enormous stash of explosives that authorities believe radical Islamic fighters were using to make bombs for attacks on northern Mali's largest city, a Malian military spokesman said. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

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Malian children mill through the heavily shelled police station in Gao, northern Mali, Monday Feb. 11 2013, one day after Mujao fighters engaged in a firefight with Malian forces. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

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Malian soldiers man a bridge at the entrance of Gao, Mali, on Feb. 8, 2013, where a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed himself attempting to blow up an army checkpoint. It was the first known time a suicide bomber operated in Mali. (Associated Press)