Ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of the airport and roads leading to the fabled desert town of Timbuktu in an overnight operation, a French military official said on Monday, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The move marked the latest inroad by the two-week-old French mission to oust radical Islamists from northern Mali, which they seized more than nine months ago.
Col. Thierry Burkhard said on Monday that the town's airport was taken without firing a shot.
"There was an operation on Timbuktu last night that allowed us to control access to the town," he said. "It's up to Malian forces to retake the town."
The Timbuktu operation comes a day after the French announced they had seized the airport and a key bridge in Gao, a city east of Timbuktu that had also been under the grip of radical Islamists.
The French and Malian forces so far have met little resistance from the Islamists, who seized northern Mali in the wake of a military coup in the distant capital of Bamako, in southern Mali.
Timbuktu, which has entranced travelers for centuries with its inaccessible mystique, is some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northeast of Bamako. During their rule, the militants have systematically destroyed Unesco World Heritage sites in the ancient town.
Read more of this AP report published by The Wall Street Journal.