Mali Muslim saints' Historic tombs destroyed

Bamako, --

Mali - Islamist fighters with ties to al Qaeda have destroyed tombs classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in Mali's historic city of Timbuktu, a resident and U.N. officials said Saturday.

Irina Bokova, who heads the U.N. Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization, cited in a statement Saturday reports the centuries-old Muslim mausoleums of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi, Moctar and Alpha Moya have been destroyed. Bokova called on "all parties engaged in the conflict to stop these terrible and irreversible acts."

Resident Ali Yattara said the Islamists began attacking the saints' tombs with shovels. He said they were responding to UNESCO's request Thursday that the sites be put on the organization's "in danger" list. Yattara said locals planned to fight back.

"The youth of Timbuktu is preparing to retaliate against the desecration of the graves of our saint," he said. "Against the Islamists' weapons, we will fight with sticks and stones."

He said the Islamists don't approve of residents' high regard for the saints' tombs.

Timbuktu was a center of Islamic learning as far back as the 12th century.

Islamist fighters from the Ansar Dine group have declared that they now control the northern half of Mali after driving out an ethnic Tuareg separatist group. The rebel groups took advantage of a power vacuum created by a March coup in the capital to seize ground in the north.

The Islamists' growing reach is more worrying news for the landlocked West African nation of 15.4 million, which was plunged into chaos after the coup.

(FILES) Residents of Timbuktu restore the City of 333 Saints' Great Mosque 10 April 2006 prior to the Maouloud festival, marking the birth of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. Ansar Dine, one of the hardline Islamist groups controlling northern Mali, threatened on June 30, 2012 to destroy all shrines of Muslim saints in the fabled city of Timbuktu, two days after the city was listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO. The Djingareyber Mosque was built by the Sultan of Mali, Kankan Moussa, on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325.

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