Al-Qaida tipsheet on avoiding drones found in Mali

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 | 12:31 p.m.

TIMBUKTU, Mali — One of the last things the bearded fighters did before leaving this city was to drive to the market where traders lay their carpets out in the sand. The al-Qaida extremists bypassed the brightly colored, high-end synthetic floor coverings and stopped their pickup truck in front of a man selling more modest mats woven from desert grass, priced at $1.40 apiece. There they bought two bales of 25 mats each, and asked him to bundle them on top of the car, along with a stack of sticks. "It's the first time someone has bought such a large ...

Associated Press writers Baba Ahmed in Timbuktu, Mali, Robert Burns in Washington and Dalatou Mamane in Niamey, Niger contributed to this report.

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