Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Crowds gathered in Timbuktu on Saturday to welcome President François Hollande. More Photos »
TIMBUKTU, Mali — France’s president, François Hollande, paid a triumphant visit to this ancient city on Saturday, receiving a rapturous welcome from thousands of people who gathered in a dusty square next to a 14th century mosque to dance, play drums and chant, “Vive la France!” The muezzin of the mosque, whose singing calls residents to pray five times a day, wore a scarf in the colors of the French flag around his neck, as he shouted, “Vive Hollande!”
But even as thousands of people gathered outside the mud and wood mosque here to greet Mr. Hollande, hailing him as the city’s, and their country’s, savior, questions remain about what, exactly, France has accomplished aside from chasing Islamic extremists from the cities and into their desert and mountain redoubts.
“These Islamists, they have not been defeated,” said Moustapha Ben Essayouti, a member of one of the city’s most prominent families who lined up to greet Mr. Hollande here. “Hardly any of them have been killed. They have run into the desert and the mountains to hide.”
Mr. Hollande, speaking to French and Malian troops gathered here, praised the alacrity of their victories.
“You have accomplished an exceptional mission,” he said. But, he later added, “the fight is not over.”
Indeed, little is known about the fate of fighters who fled the cities that have been retaken in a lightning northward advance by French and Malian troops. In interviews, residents of cities abandoned by the Islamist rebels have said that the bulk of the fighters fled in the night long before the French arrived.
With their deep familiarity of the vast, forbidding territory between this city and the borders of Algeria and Mauritania, many worry that the Islamist groups will simply regroup and come back to try again.
“If France leaves, they will come back,” Mr. Essayouti said.
The spidery network of Islamist militants in Mali numbers about 2,000 hard-core fighters, according to American intelligence officials. The most dangerous component of that mix is Al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or A.Q.I.M., the officials said.
A.Q.I.M. is attracting heavily armed Islamists from about 10 countries across North and West Africa, making Mali the biggest magnet for jihadi fighters other than Syria, one of the senior American intelligence officials said.
The Islamists that advanced toward a pivotal frontier town on Jan. 10 — leading to worries of a possible advance to the capital and drawing France into the battle — were well armed, with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns mounted on vehicles, as well as some armored personnel carriers seized from the Malian military last year.
American military and counterterrorism officials applauded the speed and efficiency of the French-led operation, but they voiced concerns that the militants had ceded the northern cities with little or no resistance in order to prepare for a longer, bloodier counterinsurgency.
“Longer term, and the French know this, it’s going to take a while to root out all these cells and operatives,” Michael Sheehan, the Pentagon’s top special operations policy official, told a defense industry symposium on Wednesday.
The senior United States intelligence official said that the real measure of success would not be geographical, but whether follow-up operations in the north would be able to degrade Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other Islamist groups.
Like other American officials, he spoke on the condition of anonymity because operations in Mali are ongoing.
For now, the people of Timbuktu were grateful. They waved French and Malian flags, danced and sang to the thumping rhythms of djembe drums, which were banned under the harsh version of Shariah imposed by the Islamist group that took control of the city. Men and women danced side by side.
As the diminutive Mr. Hollande, ringed by security guards, plunged into the crowd, shaking hands and smiling, some waved banners that said, “Papa François, the mysterious city welcomes you.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 2, 2013
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of one of the Timbuktu residents who lined up to greet the French president. He is Moustapha Ben Essayouti, not Essagouté.
