The exiled mayor of Gao said 60 to 100 Algerian and Sahrawi fighters had arrived in the town. Residents of Timbuktu and Gao said hundreds of fighters, mainly Sudanese and Sahrawis, had come into the area to help hold it for the Islamists. Tuareg rebels, who have been allied with the Islamists, called the reports “totally false.” The international community is talking about mounting an operation in Mali in 2013.
