With the fall last weekend of the northern Mali garrison town of Tessalit, and its airstrip, to Tuareg secessionist forces, U.S. counter-terror policy in Africa is dealt a stunning setback. A USAF airlift brought supplies on February 14 to the besieged town, which reportedly was overwhelmed by a column of Tuareg fighters in early February only to be retaken by a Mali Defense Forces (MDF) column a few days later, which then found itself – with the military families – surrounded by a more numerous and better armed rebel detachment. Bu there are no reports of further U.S. involvement. 

Mali is a lynchpin of U.S. strategy in the region. This defeat, qualified by the Tuareg as a rout and by the Malian government as an orderly tactical retreat, is certain to cause consternation in at least some corridors of Washington, which for the most part does not know where Mali is.