As Diabaly began to empty out, the Islamists set up roadblocks to prevent civilians from leaving, according to locals whose families and friends were turned back. Many made it out anyway, cutting across unpatrolled rice fields.
Then, as suddenly as they had arrived, the Islamists left on Thursday. It's not clear if they went because of the damage done by the sustained air raids, or in the face of a pending land assault. Residents said their departing cars looked like moving bushes because they had so much foliage attached to them.
It was another four days before the French declared the area safe to enter.
As of Monday, life in Diabaly appeared to have gone back to normal. Women gave their children bucket baths and washed their pots and pans in the irrigation canal running along one side of the town. The families whose properties had been occupied by the Islamists were cleaning up the trash they left behind.
One of the few things the Islamists stole, residents said, was a Canal+ cable television decoder. They wanted access to French channels to learn what the French were saying about the battle they had just fought.
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Associated Press writers Baba Ahmed in Diabaly, Mali and Jamey Keaten in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.
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