WHILE the world stands by al-Qaeda claims new country

Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, along the ridges and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic fighters are burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defences to protect what has essentially become al-Qaeda’s new country.

Northern Mali is now the biggest territory held by al-Qaeda and its allies. And as the world hesitates, delaying a military intervention, the extremists who seized control of the area earlier this year are preparing for a war they boast will be worse than the struggle in Afghanistan.

“Al-Qaeda never owned Afghanistan,” said former United Nations diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by al-Qaeda, whose fighters now control the main cities in the north. “They do own northern Mali.”

Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Africa has been a shadowy presence for years in the forests and deserts of Mali. In recent months, the terror syndicate and its allies have taken advantage of political instability within the country to push out of their hiding place and into the towns, taking over an enormous territory which they are using to stock up arms, train forces and prepare for global jihad.

The catalyst for the Islamic fighters was a military coup nine months ago that transformed Mali from a once-stable nation to the failed state it is today. The fall of the nation’s democratically elected government at the hands of junior officers destroyed the military’s command-and-control structure, creating the vacuum which allowed a mix of rebel groups to move in.

Turbaned fighters now control all the major towns in the north – an area bigger than France – carrying out amputations in public squares like the Taleban did and, as in Afghanistan, flogging women for not covering up. Since taking control of Timbuktu, they have destroyed seven of 16 mausoleums listed as world heritage sites.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, operates not just in Mali, but in a corridor along much of the northern Sahel. This 4,300-mile long ribbon of land runs across the widest part of Africa, and includes sections of Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, Libya, Burkina Faso and Chad.

Earlier this year, the 15 nations in West Africa, including Mali, agreed on a proposal for the military to take back the north, and sought backing from the United Nations. Earlier this month, the Security Council authorised the intervention but imposed certain conditions, including training Mali’s military, which is accused of serious human rights abuses since the coup.

In the meantime, the Islamists are getting ready, according to residents in Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao.

“The Islamists have dug tunnels, made roads, they’ve brought in generators, and solar panels in order to have electricity,” a resident of Kidal said. “They live inside the rocks.”

In addition to creating defences, the fighters are amassing supplies, experts said. A local who was taken by Islamists into a cave in the region of Kidal described an enormous room, where several cars were parked. Along the walls, he counted up to 100 barrels of petrol, according to the man’s testimony to New York-based Human Rights Watch.

In Timbuktu, the fighters are becoming more entrenched with each passing day, warned Mayor Ousmane Halle. Earlier in the year, he said, the Islamists left his city in a hurry after France called for an imminent military intervention. They returned when the UN released a report arguing for a more cautious approach.

In Gao, residents routinely see Moktar Belmoktar, the one-eyed emir of the al-Qaeda-linked cell that grabbed Mr Fowler in 2008. Belmoktar, a native Algerian, travelled to Afghanistan in the 1980s and trained in bin Laden’s camp in Jalalabad.

His lieutenant Oumar Ould Hamaha, whom Mr Fowler identified as one of his captors, brushed off questions about the tunnels and caves but said the fighters are prepared.

“We consider this land our land. It’s an Islamic territory,” he said, reached by telephone in an undisclosed location. “Right now our field of operation is Mali. If they bomb us, we are going to hit back everywhere.”

Among the many challenges an invading army will face is the inhospitable terrain, Fowler said, which is so hot that at times “it was difficult to draw breath.”

Yet Fowler said he saw al-Qaeda fighters chant Koranic verses under the Sahara sun for hours, just one sign of their deep, ideological commitment.

“I have never seen a more focused group of young men,” said Mr Fowler, who now lives in Ottawa, Canada. “They believe they are on their way to paradise.”